The First Transfer
by Trigunskitty
Summary: Eight year old Mikan Sakura wanted nothing more than to enjoy her years of elementary school. She was popular, made friends easily, and was happy all the time. How will her life change when Hotaru Imai transfers in?
1. The New Girl

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the idea of Gakuen Alice, or even the manga. I don't own anything! :D What I do own is the song that is further in the chapter. Please don't steal it or use it for personal gain. It took forever to come up with something meaningful! Some of this chapter is pretty much like the first couple of chapters of G.A, but there are some subtle differences!

**Summary:** Eight year old Mikan Sakura wanted nothing more than to enjoy her years of elementary school. She was popular, made friends easily, and was happy all the time. How will her life change when Hotaru Imai, a mysterious transfer student, appears into her life?

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"_**Find the happiness**_

_**You've wanted to obtain…**_

_**The time is short**_

_**But summer is here.**_

_**It'll only be a matter of time**_

_**Before you're wish is granted…"**_

_**-Hotaru**_

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**Chapter One: **

**The New Girl**

"Alright class, we have a new student to welcome into our classroom today!" The third grade teacher enthusiastically called out to the seven and eight year olds. It wasn't often that the school had a new student, but then again, it was the only school within a good distance from the town. The next closet school was in the city about sixteen and a half miles away. Not only would the younger kids have to wake up earlier, they'd have to ride a bus to and from the city school. Some of the parents weren't enthused about the idea either; they preferred their kids to walk and be close to home if they could help it.

"Come on in Imai, this is your new classmates. Introduce yourself." The door slowly opened to reveal a small girl with stunning purple eyes. Unlike most of the children's eyes hers held a sort of knowledge others didn't acquire until adulthood. Her hair was cropped short in even tendrils running as far as the nape of her neck. It was a strange black color compared to the other small children's brown or dirty blonde hair, and to top it off, her hair was in great condition. She was just like a porcelain doll; feminine eyes, perfectly tended raven hair, and delicate skin.

"Hello. I'm Hotaru Imai. Age seven." Her voice was soft, yet it held a businesslike manner. There were a couple students in the front of the classroom that were attentive to her every move.

"What's your favorite subject?" Unfortunately, there were those students that loved to sneer at the new kids. These were the ones who started pestering the new girl with questions. The girl didn't show any signs of weakness as she instantly said the next word aloud.

"Nanotechnology."

This was when everyone was left speechless. Who even knew about nanotechnobabble at the age of seven? That was when everyone shortly figured out that this new girl would not be someone to mess with.

The teacher coughed out twice to get her students attention back from their stupor. Even if she didn't understand why Hotaru Imai was knowledgeable about technology at that caliber, she always represented her students with the respect they deserved.

"Imai, why don't you sit in the front next to Kobe. Now let's start today's lesson on how to properly place a comma into a sentence…" Shortly after the teacher's sentence, the class was back in session with a new transfer student in tow.

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It had been a few weeks since Hotaru Imai had transferred in. She was a mystery to everyone within their grade, and just like her icy exterior she kept to herself. She was very smart for her age, and it didn't take long before some of the boys in their class had begun to admire the girl's skill at correcting the teacher's mistakes during lessons. Sometimes there would be a mistake in the text book and the girl would immediately reprimand the teacher for teaching the wrong material.

From the above description, it would make the girl sound like a snob, and that was entirely wrong. She was quiet, reserved, and when it came to academics she was very serious about it. Everyone was in awe of her academic levels. While the students were reading Black Beauty, she was reading a college level textbook called: The Art to Forensic Science.

"Hey Mikan what do you think of Hotaru?" The voice was a bit shrill, not yet hitting the maturity of a teen, but it would only take a matter of a couple years to fix it. Her blonde hair was pulled to the left side of her head into a ponytail. "She's kind of mysterious, don't you think?" She was looking up into the tree above the swing set but the only thing that made a sound was the rustling of the leaves.

Another girl who was sitting on top of the swing set was swinging her feet back and forth. She was smiling brightly but the small bruises and scratches on her arms and legs contradicted her current mood. Her black hair went straight to her shoulders and the bangs were held back by two clips. "Yeah, but she's amazing! She helped me with my worst subject the other day! In fact today I'm going to take her out for ice cream since I promised her I would."

Suddenly a girl had jumped down from the branch above where the two girls were animatedly chatting. Her hair was pulled back into two pigtails and her auburn bangs were hovering just at her eye level. She was wearing a pleated cream skirt with a short sleeved red and white tee. She was wearing her white school shoes outside of the building but the teachers didn't care unless they got scuffed.

"I don't know…" It had sounded like she was annoyed at something and because of the tone the two girls didn't understand why she was annoyed.

"What don't you understand Mikan?" Her blonde haired companion asked, but the other girl just laughed. "I bet Hotaru could help you understand Mikan! She's great!"

Mikan just narrowed her eyes at her friends before heaving a short sigh. "...Nothing. I'm heading back inside now." The two girls quizzically looked at the back of Mikan as she walked back into the school building. The only thing these two didn't understand was the feeling of jealously coursing through the eight year old girl. Before Hotaru Imai transferred in Mikan Sakura was the idol of the town. Now with her new competition she was second rate in comparison.

"I wonder what's wrong with Mikan."

"I wonder too…"

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Heavily sighing out Mikan glanced out the second floor window to see Hotaru Imai leaving the school premises. Normally the girl was alone but this time she was escorted out by Mikan's two friends from lunch to get ice cream. Her hand lightly touched the window as she peered out with sadness. She just wanted to tag along too but with Hotaru Imai there, she wasn't sure anymore. Taking another stagnant breathe the girl went to grab the cloth besides her to clean the rest of the window. It was her turn to do cleaning duty that day anyways.

Before the trio of girls turned the corner in front of the school's gate Mikan saw Hotaru glance back at the school building. Her eyes were intently staring through the window at Mikan's before turning away. Once she was out of sight Mikan began to relax again. There was something about that girl that set alarms off everywhere… and Mikan wasn't going to let her guard down if they continued to do so.

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A week had gone by after the window incident. Nobody mentioned the fact that Mikan had quietly shut herself away as everyone curiously pondered over the mysterious new girl. Nothing new was discovered… well, only that she was very skilled at hands activities and she was intelligent. She easily made things no one could have possibly dreamed of, and to top it off, they were designed after animals. Mikan had surprised herself one day with a thought such as that when she saw the cute walking turtle on Hotaru's desk in the front. Its legs were small, and they were wobbling around.

"Hey." It was the quiet voice Mikan had been dreading to hear since the first day she transferred in. She had thought that she had kept perfectly to herself, going home alone, playing by herself in the tree, she even forced herself to hide in the library a couple of times to avoid the other children.

The girl knew it would have been inevitable to avoid everyone forever, and so without further ado the eight year old was forced to face her nemesis. She tried to smile a bit but she knew it wouldn't be possible in her current state. The girl paid no heed to her foul mood and instead pulled out a single sheet of paper from behind her. From what it looked like, it was a competition for girls only… and the requirements were that you needed at least two people within your group to sing and dance. Of course one of the judging aspects of the contest was of the girls' cuteness.

"Since we're different we may be able to pool our cute assets… like a boy band."

Five point seven ninths of a second later Mikan exploded into a bright arrangement of red. It wasn't odd to have a couple guys from the neighborhood call her cute and give her free food but this was something she was not expecting. At first glance Mikan had thought that Hotaru was nothing more than a snob… but now she couldn't think that way about her. She was… cuter than what she had first thought.

Raising a hand to her gaping mouth she slowly nodded her head to the short haired girl.

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A beautiful friendship was born afterwards. Once the day ended the two of them left the school grounds together to practice what to do for the contest. Mikan was preparing the dances, lyrics, and song material while Hotaru just worked on special effects. All in all they pretty much worked together and once the month had ended the contest was upon them.

"Hotaru, did you finish the lighting that you said you were working on?" Mikan was pulling one of her small fluffy pillows to her body while Hotaru just twisted a screwdriver in her pale hand.

"Yeah, but my inspiration just stopped." She gave a depressed sigh out but then went to stare at the clock. The girl had found it odd that her creativity stopped whenever she was around Mikan, but that didn't stop her from hanging around with the girl. After all, they still had those free food coupons to win. The second hand was hovering just over the eleven while she twiddled with her tools. They'd be performing in a couple of hours at this rate.

"I wonder why that happens. I mean you are the smartest in this town. Heck you even corrected that business man that came to teach us that one day." Mikan laughed at the memory when the stoic girl innocently raised her hand during the first five minutes of the lesson. Supposedly the man was from the major cities schools branch and was showing how great the education was over there, but once he had begun Hotaru had instantly brought his ego down to a grain of salt.

"It only happens when I'm working with you. Maybe I need to stay away from you to avoid losing anymore brain cells. Also that man was in way over his head. I hate people who are conceited." She was twirling her tool back and forth between her thumb, index and middle fingers while Mikan threw her pillow over her head in frustration.

"Hotaru how could you say that about your best friend?" The eight year old puffed out her cheeks in annoyance. How could she say something so cruel when they worked so hard to get where they were today? "Aren't you being cruel Hotaru? Well, anyways, let's go over the formations one last time before we head to the festivities."

Hotaru didn't know whether or not the girl was dumb or just too narrow minded under the crunch. It only took Hotaru a month to figure out who Mikan really was as a person. She had thought her first impression of the girl was a little off, especially since the girl kept glaring at her whenever she had the chance too. Then there was the time when she became completely silent. It was odd to see her that way even though Hotaru was still new to the area and its people.

"Sure." Mechanically, the seven year old followed the brunette and perfectly mimicked the dance the way she was taught. Though she didn't have that bright smile that Mikan had, she did have her mysterious charm hovering over her in this town. Everyone found her amazing the first few steps she took, and from there everyone pretty much acknowledged that Hotaru Imai hardly showed any emotions.

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The contest had started with a huge bang. There were plenty of groups that had entered the contest and were very good competition. Hotaru wasn't worried, but backstage Mikan was shaking her hands up and down in front of her. It was hard to see why the brunette was nervous since she practically breathed the whole routine an hour ago without much thought.

"You'll be fine Mikan." Hotaru had made the change from calling Sakura to Mikan after the first two weeks of being acquainted with each other, and Mikan had just called Hotaru by her first name since the beginning. The girl didn't mind being called without honorifics; actually, she thought they were overrated for their age. "My machines will cover us if something happens."

"Oh Hotaru I knew I could rely on you!" Mikan grabbed on to Hotaru's arm and gave one of her best smiles. "Let's do our best, 'kay!" Lightly nodding her head Hotaru flashed a very rare smile to the girl and patted her head.

"Sure. Now get off so that I can walk onstage." Pushing Mikan's head away from herself, she pulled out a roller to wipe down any wrinkles Mikan might have caused. She was always meticulous when it came to last minute details.

"EH? It's our turn!" Mikan shouted out in a hushed whisper while jerking her head both ways to find the time. On the wall closet to the emergency exit was a regular wall clock and the hands were pointed at the seven and six. "Six thirty-five, we're almost up Hotaru!" She was continuing to speak about other important things about the routine but Hotaru was pulling out some of her inventions from earlier that afternoon.

"Hey, stop mumbling like a buffoon and help me with the equipment."

"Right!" The brunette saluted to her friend and grabbed the closet lighting instrument. It was slightly heavy for someone her age to be carrying around but Hotaru seemed to trust her enough to not wreck it before the show.

"Alright, next we have Two Dimensions premiering Mikan Sakura and Hotaru Imai!" The crowd outside was cheering out for both of them while they started to put stuff on the stage. The loudest one out in the audience though was Mikan's grandfather and he was wearing a red ribbon around him forehead and was sporting a huge flag with Mikan's and Hotaru's name on it.

"GO HOTARU! GO MIKAN!" Around him some of the people jumped up surprised that a person his age could yell that loud and not get winded shortly after. The shock never wore away as he then started to wave his flag high in the air.

"Grandpa sure is excited for us, huh Hotaru?" Mikan was plugging in the fog machine in the back of the stage while Hotaru made some last minute fixes of the lighting instruments up front.

"He's just like someone I know." She replied out before pulling off her work goggles. Mikan just laughed with a bit of humiliation at that comment.

"Heeheehee… Well, you ready Hotaru?" The way their show worked was that the lighting would give off a cooling effect to the audience, while the fog was set up to soothe the soul and mind. It was Hotaru's idea to give off a "summer may be here, but it won't be bad" type of thing and Mikan was up for it one hundred percent.

What was even cooler about their show was that Hotaru planned something that Mikan had no clue about. She had an idea that Hotaru had a secret plan for the finale but she wouldn't find out about it until the last pose.

"Performing for us as our final act is once again Two Dimensions starring Mikan Sakura and Hotaru Imai. Welcome to the stage our lovely stars!" The crowd cheered when the two set themselves onto the stage. They started side by side right in the center and the lights flashed on. They were colored lights blaring from red, to blue, to yellow in a matter of minutes. Sometimes they pulsed, but everything stopped into an eerie blue color just as the fog machine kicked on. The lights were all off except for a spotlight in the middle of the stage.

"_**Leaves blowing in the breeze,**_

_**The billows rolling through the skies,**_

_**Schools finally out for once in our third grade lives!" **_

Mikan and Hotaru stepped forward at the same time with their right hands extended to the stars. In their left hands were the microphones the backstage crew gave the two before they went onstage. They both moved in unison to the left and then to the right while singing the first passage out. Mikan was singing the higher parts while Hotaru covered the lower one. Over all it was a beautiful harmony.

"_**We're here tonight to sing our praise**_

_**Let loose, but don't overlook a good day's wage!**_

_**Summer's here for us to enjoy, so don't fear,**_

_**Just relax, kick back, and go sail!**_

_**There's so much out there to explore and learn,**_

_**It might be hard but no worries, we're here!**_

_**Two dimensions will keep you rocking,**_

_**Don't stop now, we're not done shocking!**_

Mikan easily performed a cartwheel to the side just behind Hotaru, while the raven haired girl continued the next line on her own. Everyone was pretty amazed by the special effects that had begun to work.

"_**Don't stop, Go run. **_

_**Look at the places you've found.**_

_**The world isn't scary**_

_**But just keep at it to find that joy."**_

Some people were nodding their heads to the rhythm, while some others were clapping to the beat. Mikan jumped up from behind Hotaru at this point, and without a pause the girl tossed off stage some soft candy to the kids in the front row before joining Hotaru in sync dancing.

"_**Cause we're Two Dimensions,**_

_**We'll keep you rocking,**_

_**Cause once you've started**_

_**You'll never go stopping."**_

The song drifted to its last rift, and before Mikan and Hotaru jump into their last stances, the dark skies lit up with white fireworks. The two girls looked up at the same time causing everyone in the audience to do the same and they immediately awed in response. There were a couple images in the sky such as watermelon, and ice cream. There were also exploding stars with purple and reds expanding at the sides.

"Wow!" Mikan gasped onstage while Hotaru smirked. Grabbing Mikan's hand she reminded her of the last addition and she nodded her head in agreement. Mikan stopped short after the first verse wanting Hotaru to take the last words. Even though it was Mikan who was in charge of lyrics Hotaru did change it up to sound a bit more upbeat. So it was evident that Hotaru should get the spotlight.

"_**Find the happiness **_

_**You've wanted to obtain…**_

_**The time is short**_

_**But summer is here.**_

_**It'll only be a matter of time**_

_**Before you're wish is granted**_

_**For Two Dimensions will keep you rocking,**_

_**So that you'll never go stopping…" **_

The song ended shortly after Hotaru's last words; Mikan was so absorbed in the fireworks show now to actually hear the last verse her friend had added in, but someone heard it. Taking a moment to look out into the audience Hotaru saw her mom and dad seating in the second row in the fifth section. Her mom looked like she was going to cry while her dad gave a weak smile. Someone noticed the darker tone of that message.

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"Hotaru, you didn't tell me you had fireworks set up in the back! I was in shock! No, the _judges _were in shock. I'm glad that we won though!" Mikan was shoving the fog machine into Hotaru's storage room at her home.

"If I did tell you, you would have told your grandfather. Then _he _would have told everyone in town because of how excited he would have been. Trust me; we didn't want to lose the surprise factor." She was counting how many food coupons she had gotten from the judges while Mikan was still shoving her inventions into the container.

"I guess…" She heaved out, and once she finished up she closed the storage door and slid down to sit. "But wow, I'm super exhausted after all that work. That was epic!"

"What I can't get," Hotaru monotonously said, "is why you just used the word "epic?" Last time I checked, that word was only used to describe tales of famous heroes such as Homer from the Iliad, or Hercules from the Greek legends. We are not that great, and I'm sure pop stars such as Reo would scoff at our little rock show… Or the lack of one."

This time it was Mikan's point to be confused. Who was Romeo, or Hercelers, or Relo? They weren't people she even learned of. "Who the heck is… errr… Relo…?" The black haired girl just sighed before tugging Mikan up off the ground.

"Follow me, I'll show you who _Reo _is. He's a new pop star that appeared in Tokyo a year or two ago. He's pretty famous now, though then again, it might be because of _that._"

"Because of _what?" _Mikan questioned aloud. She followed Hotaru up the staircase to her room, where she then pulled out a laptop to go to Google. She was quick at typing for someone her age, but then again, this was Hotaru Imai they were talking about.

"Reo," Hotaru explained pointed at the picture of a male around the age of nineteen to twenty. "He graduated from Gakuen Alice, the elite school in Tokyo, and became an instant hit amongst the populace. It says that all of his fans will fall speechless when listening to his music." Zipping the mouse up to the right corner of the webpage, the girl pulled out another webpage to only type in YouTube. A matter of seconds later she found one of the first concerts he did a couple weeks ago and played it through.

The lights blared, and behind him were mechanically controlled instruments. Looking back at the person, she realized that he had magenta red hair that was evenly combed off to the side, and he had an alluring purple tint to his eyes. Once he began singing the crowd instantly stopped chatting and just listened. Hotaru on the other hand stuffed her ears with earplugs and waited for his song to end. Why would she do that when he was just singing?

Staring intently at the screen she wondered why a singer such as him got so much appeal.

Once the song ended Hotaru instantly shut down her laptop to perform a bug test. She was saying something about a computer virus running through her laptop thanks to listening but once the software cleared everything she was happy.

"Now I don't have to worry about being brainwashed." She muttered once she closed her laptop shut.

"What?" Mikan asked quizzically while Hotaru fumbled away from her terminal. Unlike Mikan's room which was a traditional eight panel Tatami mat room, Hotaru's was pretty modern with a bed and desk. On the floor was machines strewn all over the place.

"…Nothing, forget I said anything. I'm getting some watermelon from the fridge. Let's go Mikan." Abruptly she left her room before Mikan could ask any more questions regarding the last conversation. Hotaru was mysterious, but there was something to that mystery that began to unravel within that short span of five minutes.

"Okay!"

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**T.K.:** Sorry for not updating lately! It's been super hectic right now! I haven't written much for The Assignment yet, but I will update that shortly! Like my profile says I will sit down and work on it soon! Please look forward to more updates. :D

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**Completed:** September 17, 2010; 8:22 a.m.


	2. The Beginning Of The End

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Gakuen Alice. They belong to the rightful owner: Tachibana Higuchi. Thank you for your time.

**Summary:** Eight year old Mikan Sakura wanted nothing more than to enjoy her years of elementary school. She was popular, made friends easily, and was happy all the time. How will her life change when Hotaru Imai, a mysterious transfer student, appears into her life?

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"…_**The instant he sees me, he blows me up… literally!"**_

_**-Narumi**_

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**Chapter Two:**

**The Beginning of The End**

The summer break only lasted for about two months. Everyone was slowly finishing their summer homework, or they just didn't do it until the last day of summer. This just so happened to Mikan as she stumbled through her grandfather's manor looking for a paper and pen.

"Grandpa, where did you put the papers and pencils? I need to write out my spelling words and then I need to draw out my art project! Ah! I also need to finish my math work!" The brunette ran throughout the house while her grandfather went straight to the front room. Ever since last year his granddaughter had run around all summer without paying any heed to her work, so he supposed this was what it meant by: You reap what you sow .

Suddenly the front door opened up to reveal Hotaru Imai eating a Popsicle stick. It was purple, so it must have been a grape flavored one, and it was already half eaten. Taking off her shoes at the entrance, she found Mikan's grandfather sitting down with a stern expression. "Hello Grandpa." Hotaru mechanically replied. Ever since the contest Mikan's grandfather had always insisted that Hotaru should call him grandfather too. It made him feel like he had two granddaughters instead of one when she did so.

"Good morning Hotaru, Mikan's running around finishing her homework. I'm sure you're not in the same boat as her, are you?" The old man sized up the girl in front of him with a careful eye but she shook her head.

"Unlike some fools, I don't wait until the last minute. I figured this would happen anyways." Turning on the balls of her foot, Hotaru walked straight to Mikan's room to see her bawling over some paper.

"Hotaru!" She whined out, "I can't do it! I lost my homework and I can't remember _anything!_" Dropping her head she continued to moan out in agony before the raven haired girl groaned out. Of course she was those types of people. Finishing the last bit of her ice cream, Hotaru pulled out her own work and then used her left hand to grab the closet object to her, which happened to be her flyswatter.

Whacking the girl at the side, she wiped her hands and gave another definite sigh. "Quit crying, if you had done it before like I told you, you wouldn't have been in this situation." Neatly stacking the necessary books in a certain order she pointed to the math one and started off from the basics.

"I don't want to hear you complaining at the beginning of the school year about how you failed, so I'm dedicating my _time and efforts _into helping you succeed. Now Question 1: What is 1x2=?" Mikan picked her head off the floor and answer confidently.

"1x2=2!"

"Good, now Question 2: 3x2=?"

"That's six!" She chirped.

"5x3="?"

"That's… fif…teen?"

"I'm not repeating questions so write them down so you can complete the assignment."

"AH!" Scribbling to write down the last three questions and answers, she and Hotaru continued on and for a couple hours they continued until the girl was pretty much caught up in Math, English, and Art. Next was her worst subject, Biology.

"Why do they have to teach Biology anyways?" Mikan mumbled with a pencil balancing on her upper lip. Hotaru was placing her materials back into her bag except for the last thick one known as Mikan's demise. It was the last portion of the summer homework, and it was about the human body.

"It's obviously because people like you need to be informed about what it is you have. Honestly, there are probably things that you don't even know about inside you that you don't know of."

Rising to her challenge Mikan triumphantly puffed out her cheeks. "Oh really, then name one and you'll be sorely disappointed!"

"The appendix, and where is it located."

Mikan paused at this but once she found the answer she pointed to her right side, just below her gall bladder. "Ooh! Here, here! I know about that since that's where they took Grandfather's out!"

The purple eyed girl raised her eye brow in suspicion before asking the next question. "Alright, and what's its function?"

"Oh, I know that too!" Mikan exclaimed, "It doesn't have a function… if I remember grandpa told me that it was like a ticking bomb, and no one knows why we have it!"

Hotaru just shook her head before returning to another question. "Then how about the pancreas, what is it?"

Mikan was stopped short when she heard the unfamiliar term. It was like she was just given a riddle and there were no clues to solving it within the given area. Giving a shaky laugh the girl grabbed her pencil and paper only to write out her name, date, and classroom assignment before turning to Hotaru.

"…So what about that Bio homework?" She asked uneasily.

"…That's what I thought." Hotaru smirked before opening the assignment. "Question 1: Name five body parts that we use daily."

Mikan was scribbling down the answers as she voiced them off. "Let's see, the feet, the legs, the hands, the arms, and… and the nose!"

Hotaru continued on as if Mikan was invisible, "Question 2: Name two internal organs. Question 3: Name the five senses. Question 4: What is photosynthesis? Question 5: What do the trees release? Question 6—"

"Ah! Hotaru!" Mikan panicked while she scrambled to write the questions _and _answers down. "That's not fair, how am I supposed to write it down if you go to fast!" She was catching up on the questions while Hotaru shrugged.

"Not my problem." She responded with a smirk. "If you quit dilly-dallying you might finish in time for us to get some free watermelon from the mayor." It didn't take a genius to understand that Hotaru was trying to finish this session up. Mikan had apparently learned the hard way that her love was really, _really _hard to understand. So much so that it didn't appear like she loved her at all.

"Alright, double time! Let's finish this up and head out then!" That didn't stop Mikan's enthusiasm though. She was prepared the minute Hotaru stepped in that this might happen. If Hotaru wanted to cut this short, well Mikan would have to quicken the pace to make sure she had everything finished.

"Okay, question 6 was…"

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"Finished!" Mikan yelled out for the whole town to hear. Hotaru was happily (or what appeared to be her happy face) eating her third piece of watermelon while Mikan was still gorging down her second. The eight year old knew that the homework would have taken all day, but with Hotaru's help the time was cut in half.

"Thanks Hotaru for the help! I really appreciate it!" Hotaru smoothly spit out black watermelon seeds as the brunette wiped her mouth with her forearm.

"If you really appreciate my help, surely you've thought of a way to pay me back?" Disregarding her slice of eaten watermelon Hotaru grabbed herself another slice and ate that one in peace.

"Moe!" Mikan complained, "You greedy person!"

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The third graders became fourth graders when the new term began in August. After summer festivities and having performed Two Dimensions back in the idol contest that summer Mikan and Hotaru were known as the inseparable duo. They were always together, but that didn't mean that they were all giggles and smiles. There were times that Mikan became mad at Hotaru for her lack of expression to everything, while Hotaru was irritated at Mikan for her clinginess, annoyance, and for not smiling that bright smile… but the eight year old inventor would never admit that last part aloud.

Currently the two were having a little spat (so to speak). Time from August evolved into the equinox of autumn, and finally September breezed by without much notice. October was the time where the trees would lose their green leaves and start to turn yellow and that only meant one thing. Winter was well on its way.

"Why didn't you tell me your birthday was in a couple days Hotaru?" The voice belonged to a seven year old Mikan Sakura, and she was outside in the storm of the leaves. Her school had assigned everyone outside chores as a way to get them ready as responsible teens. Hotaru in the mean time was resting underneath one of her bagworm inventions with a book stuck to her nose.

"I didn't feel it necessary to tell you." She curtly responded with a turn of the page. Her amethyst eyes were following the texts with a ferocity that wasn't supposed to belong to a seven year old.

"Hotaru, how am I supposed to get you a present this late in the game? I don't even know what to get you and the 25th is quickly catching us!" That was the cue for Hotaru to give her friend a shrug of the shoulder before returning to her book. She seemed to be interested in its material to really care what Mikan was saying.

"Look Mikan," Hotaru began, "Just because my birthday is a couple days away it doesn't mean I won't enjoy it. Besides I don't want any presents from you." It was at this moment the bells at the school began to chime its annual five chime glory. The time between each ring gave both the girls' time to quietly sort through their things and quickly head in.

The day finished shortly after and everyone had begun to wonder why Mikan looked like she was deep in thought. Normally the girl would be all smiles around this time but now it scared some of the students. Mikan wasn't supposed to be silent. That was Hotaru's job, which pretty much didn't change after what happened after clean-up time.

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The twenty fifth came without much incident. The teacher (much to Hotaru's dismay) had planned a social Halloween/birthday bash for the girl and since that was one of the things this teacher did for her students and everyone wasn't complaining. Little snacks in bowls decorated on top of two students' desk were compiled in the front of the board while everyone passed Hotaru her birthday cards.

Despite it being a cheery occasion Hotaru was obviously irritated; but it wasn't the party, the teacher, or the students that was the origin of her irritation. The origin of it all resided on Mikan Sakura. The girl had not spoken to her since outside cleaning session, and for once in her life, Hotaru Imai was thoroughly annoyed. She didn't like to be ignored, especially when it dealt with the girl who meant a lot to her.

The girl in question was at her desk, oddly staring outside to the sea of coloring leaves and swirling gray clouds. Upon further inspection Hotaru noticed that the girl had a little bit of bags underneath her hazel eyes. The droopy look she had left the inventor under the impression that the brunette hadn't slept for a good portion of the week. Also, there were bandages wrapped tightly around her thin fingers. What could she have been doing that would have resulted in her getting hurt?

All of the irritating emotions flowed through the inventor like the churning sea and at once the girl went straight to the source. Confronting Mikan was the only way to stop this little fight. Or whatever it was that was happening between them. The pigtailed brunette was supposed to be all smiles, especially since it was _her _birthday, and Hotaru wanted to see that smile at least once that day.

"What's wrong?" Hotaru kept her voice within a clipped tone. It was true that she was annoyed but she didn't want to cause the brunette to do something stupid that would further irritate her.

"Huh?" The girl was stirred from her stupor before staring into purple orbs. "Oh, hi Hotaru; Nothings' wrong." She kept to herself after she had said this, and being further annoyed the raven haired girl frowned.

"I see." Hotaru replied back just as calmly.

The brunette smiled a second later before it was interrupted with a yawn. Reacting to it the girl covered her gaping mouth with her hand while the other rose up above her to stretch out.

"Hey Hotaru, after school do you want to walk home?"

Did the girl completely forget what day it was? She was making a commotion about it a couple days ago and now she's completely ignoring it. A tick appeared just above Hotaru's left brow while the young brunette was waiting for a response.

Seconds later a fly swatter the size of a door crashed into Mikan's side and while she was flying away to the back of the room Hotaru returned to her desk.

"Meet me at the entrance of the school five minutes after the bells chime. If you're late then I'm going to leave." Mikan, obviously angered by the last few moments, rose up to the occasion with a fiery passion before collapsing at her desks chair in a tired fashion. Whatever had previously happened flew right over Mikan's shoulders as she exhaled a shaky breath.

"Okay. I'll be there after school."

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Walking home was the easier part of the day for both Hotaru and Mikan. Class had ended earlier since it was just a party and the chattering students filed out in groups of two or three. One of these groups just happened to be the inventor and brunette and they were slipping on their outside shoes to walk home.

"Hotaru, I know I've been acting weirdly," Mikan started and Hotaru scoffed in silence. "And there's a good reason for it…" Fumbling through her bag the girl pulled out a small wrapped present that was about the size of a doll. The ribbon was tied in a messy bow and the wrapping paper was tearing around one corner of the present. It was a rather crumply present but a present none the less.

"I said I didn't want a present." Hotaru spoke finally, but retrieved the wrapping from the girl anyway. Mikan just giggled before giving her friend a tired, but happy smile. "I know, but I couldn't _not _give you something… it's homemade if you're wondering. I didn't know if you were worried about me buying anything so I went with this approach." She raised her hands as if to triumphantly prove that she conquered a fear she harbored her whole life.

"…" Hotaru pulled at the top of her present while Mikan just continued her story. "It was a bit harder than it looked, so I haven't had a good amount of sleep yet… but after today I'm taking a good nap! Anyways Happy Birthday," Smiling at her friend Mikan tilted her head in confusion. Why wasn't Hotaru opening it yet?

"You idiot…" Hotaru muttered.

"What?" Mikan asked confused. What had brought this on? It felt like forever waiting for her friends' reply to her question so deciding it best, the girl look squarely into the inventor's eyes before realizing that the girl in question was giving Mikan a small smile. The breath left the small brunette like a flock of butterflies away from a meadow, and Hotaru continued on.

"I knew you would do something stupid as this…" With her free hand she brought one of Mikan's hands up to inspect the damage. "…for me… that's why I didn't want a present." Then with ease she dropped her friends hand and went to opening the wrapping. Once it was away her eyes scrunched. What the hell was she holding?

"It's a homemade doll! See, here's the dress…" Mikan was explaining certain parts of the doll to the speechless inventor, but all that Hotaru got from this was: _She actually made a voodoo doll… _

At last they reached Hotaru's house and before Hotaru could walk inside Mikan grabbed Hotaru's hands into her own and gave them a soft squeeze. She was smiling with so much enthusiasm that Hotaru couldn't help but think that the present wasn't_ that bad. _It lacked charisma, but it was the thought that counted.

…And Hotaru received one other thing from Mikan that day.

Watching the brunette run along home, she couldn't stop the small corner of her lips curving up.

She didn't need anything material from that girl. There was only one thing that she wanted and that one thing was Mikan to continue smiling. After all, she was as bright as the sun. She was the one thing in life that made it all worth it in the end.

Turning on the ball point of her foot she opened her door to the smell of tea leaves and the screeching of chairs. The eight year old noticed her mother and father immediately sitting at one side of the table, and another familiar face sitting adjacent to them.

"Hotaru Imai." The brown haired, brown-eyed man started without pause. He was sitting with his hands around a cup of tea and he was by himself. The frown on his face was evident even when he lifted the glass to take a sip.

Bringing her doll behind her she stared unevenly at the teacher, she knew him. He was Misaki, and if she did go with him he would be her teacher in the mixed classes if she did go. That was a huge if though.

"Misaki-sensei…" Hotaru calmly stated before sighing.

"Please consider coming to Gakuen Alice." He replied suddenly, there would be no miscommunications this time around.

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"Are you sure you can just do that Misaki-sensei?" A blonde haired teacher opened the black limousine door as the teacher stepped into the spacious car. He had been chasing after Hotaru Imai for a good three years now, and it probably wouldn't stop just like that.

"Enough Narumi; As long as the academy officials don't know where she is she can stay safe. Only you and I know about her residing here, anyways…"

The Narumi coyly gave a smile to his co-worker. His purple eyes shined with a mysterious aura that caused Misaki to get chills. The purple-eyes French teacher knew exactly what he was going to say next.

"Oh, if you're wondering about the Nogi's…" Narumi chuckled out. "I'm under the same boat and Ruka's mother, being the famous actress she is, has many connections that has kept him safe from the academies reach… also he recently encountered two other Alice's his age."

Misaki just frowned at this. "The Hyuuga's I'm presuming."

"Correct," Narumi sighed while dramatically brushing his blonde bangs back with his pale hand. "I can't approach Ruka now with Natsume there. The instant he sees me, he blows me up… literally." Despite the damages received Narumi was laughing by the end of it. It was like a good joke at the end of the day.

"You and Makihara-sensei must have it tough. Especially since Persona is supposed to accompany you two." The teacher calmly said while staring at the Imai's house. The black limo started shortly after and they were off to the main city.

"Unfortunately. He is the Dangerous Abilities teacher though. If Natsume continues to exhibit such… reckless behavior he may not wind up in the latent ability… Aoi may be able to since she's such a timid girl, but Natsume's at that age where he'll do whatever it takes, and the academy may view that as _dangerous." _

"So, what are you doing here if you're charged with collecting Ruka, Natsume and Aoi?"

The blonde teacher scratched the back of his head with his hand. "Well, that's the thing… Ruka disappeared without a trace with Natsume and Aoi. Ruka's mother won't disclose where her son is, but she assures us that he is safe wherever he is. Natsume's father has moved, so we're thinking Ruka is with the Hyuuga's now."

Misaki just sighed into his hand, waving off the foreboding feeling. "Just be sure to do your job and not get sucked into anymore issues. After _her, _things have gotten plenty strict for all of us; even the students." It was Narumi's turn to sigh at this. The gravel kicked up underneath the black limo as it dove past a cute girl on her way from home. Her hair was up in two pigtails and her eyes were that hazel color he had once always seen every day. Taking a glance at the girl he noticed she was about the same age as Hotaru, Ruka, and Natsume but unlike those three she'd obviously be without an Alice.

"I understand Misaki-sensei! I'll be sure to be careful when dealing with that."

"That's what I'm worried about Naru; I don't know what will happen if _she _continues to persistently interfere. Then you have the Elementary School Principal who's all too eager to send his favorites out to find her. Just be careful."

"Alright, alright," The blonde teacher jovially responded with his own smile. "Don't worry yourself enough to get gray hairs Misaki-sensei!"

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**T.K.:** Hey, if you're still reading that must mean I've done something right! :D I'm glad that my readers are still reading, I hope to continue writing stuff you enjoy! Please review! Thanks!

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**Completed: September 17, 2010; 8:37 a.m.**


	3. Alices?

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Gakuen Alice. They belong to the rightful owner: Tachibana Higuchi. Thank you for your time.

**Summary:** Eight year old Mikan Sakura wanted nothing more than to enjoy her years of elementary school. She was popular, made friends easily, and was happy all the time. How will her life change when Hotaru Imai, a mysterious transfer student, appears into her life?

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"_**I didn't want to have to stay away from my parents but it was something that had to happen. Natsume and Aoi were the only ones I could turn to."**_

_**-Ruka**_

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**Chapter Three: **

**Alices?**

Halloween ended and the Christmas spirit was within each of the fourth graders. Everyone was excited for December 25th to come, but there was one who was indifferent. That person was none other than Hotaru Imai. She was reading at her own pace, while the other students were happily chatting away about what was about to come. Mikan just happened to be one of those people.

"So, the teacher hasn't come in yet… does that mean we don't have school?" A girl named Maki asked a classmate of her.

"No, we have class." The class rep Kobe replied. "The teacher said that we're receiving three new students, one will be in third and two will be in our grade." The buzzing about Christmas shortly died down once they heard of a possible transfer again. Earlier that year they received Hotaru and she was a blessing to have.

"Do you know if they're boys, or if they're girls?" Erika asked Kobe who just shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know. All I was told was to pull two more desks out for our class and one more for the third grade class below us."

Mikan whistled to herself as she walked over to where Hotaru was reading. She didn't seem perplexed about what was happening, but the brunette found it odd. New transfers just like Hotaru. It was the middle of the year already so it wasn't an ideal time to come into a new school, but that was as far as that thought got before Mikan peered over her friends shoulder. The book she was reading was one of those that looked gibberish to her, and in fact, it made her head hurt.

"Nah, maybe I'm just over thinking it." Mikan thought out loud to herself. "Hotaru's weird so obviously she could withstand going into a new school." Hotaru caught this and whacked Mikan across the room with her swatter. A sign in the back had two columns, one with a large quantity of numbers and a big fat zero on the other. Kobe maneuvered his way to it and pulled a number down making the 37 into a 38.

"What was that idiot?" She shut her book with a deft sound, getting up to retrieve the sprawled girl on the ground.

"What did you do that for Hotaru?" Mikan cried out clutching her antagonized cheek. It was slowly turning back to its normal color instead of the bright red upon impact color.

"For being stupid obviously; get back to your seat before you look like a fool even more."

After Hotaru's birthday the girl had began to act differently. She treated Mikan as if she were annoying as flies sometimes and though there were times where they'd laugh Hotaru would always go back to the icy exterior.

Mikan mumbled her curses underneath her breath, but immediately stopped when the class door was opened by the teacher. Behind her two boys walked in. One had blonde hair, blue eyes, and had a small frown on his face. It was a similar story with the other boy except he had raven hair (just like Hotaru) and crimson eyes. His hands were placed inside the pocket of his shorts as he stared with bored fascination at the wall in back.

"Class, please welcome our two new classmates." She was writing the first name down as she was stating this. "Ruka Nogi, would you like to introduce yourself to the class?" She stopped after writing his name leaving the other boy's a mystery still. Everyone was wondering which one Ruka was while also being curious about the other name.

Shortly afterwards the blonde boy stepped forward with a curt smile. It had seemed like it was a forced smile but no one would have noticed it besides Hotaru. "Ruka Nogi."

Some of the girls in back giggled while goggling at the two new boys but Mikan immediately shut them up by throwing a glare. She didn't want any bullying going on, even though it wasn't bullying. Since Hotaru transferred in many of the boys in back teased her, but were immediately shut up. Just like that they stopped their giggles before anyone could be the miser.

The teacher oblivious to the commotion in back finally started to write the other boys name.

"And this is Natsume Hyuuga; he has a younger sister just below our level. Please be good to them since they are new to the area. Would you like to introduce yourself Natsume?"

The boy merely shrugged at the question before looking at his peers. Mikan hadn't noticed it before but his eyes gave her a chill. Something about them felt just like Hotaru; mysterious. The same could be said about Ruka Nogi as well. There was something different about these new transfers.

"Natsume Hyuuga." His voice wasn't as soft as the blonde boy, and everyone was in awe. His presence was enough to fill a room up.

Clapping her hands the teacher began to erase their names off the board, but not before adding if the class wanted to ask any questions. Immediately voices picked up.

"Are you two friends?"

"How old are you?"

"What's your sister's name Hyuuga?"

Mikan leaned back in her chair with a pencil balanced on her upper lip. It was odd that these two possessed the same mysterious aura that Hotaru did… and would that mean they'd be good friends? Closing her eyes she sighed out. Everything about this screamed that something more was coming, and it wasn't a good one.

Taking a quick glance at her friend, Mikan saw that Hotaru had straightened in her seat. Her hands were clenched at the sides and her book long forgotten. Her eyes were sizing up the two boys, but unlike the brunette, she knew something.

"Now, now children," The teacher scolded while wiping her hands. "You have plenty of time to chat later. Today we're learning to divide and I've already used up a lot of our time in Math session. Ruka, Natsume why don't you sit in the two seats behind Sakura and we'll begin."

It had taken Ruka a couple of seconds to realize where the seats were but Natsume had already made his way up the aisle. He didn't bother looking at the other students but he did happen to catch the eye of a certain person.

Ruka slightly tapped Natsume on his shoulder to remind him to walk once again, but Mikan didn't miss the glare the boy gave. The glare was directed completely straight at Hotaru and she in turn returned it.

The two sat behind her seat shortly after and the teacher started her lecture on dividing.

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Once class had ended Mikan immediately jumped up from her spot to go by Hotaru. To say that she was concerned was the least of her worries as the girl ignored her. The amethyst eyed beauty was slowly packing her books back into her backpack before she gave notice to Mikan.

"Hotaru, want to walk home today?" Giving a quick side glance over her shoulder, she verified that the boys hadn't moved from their spots yet.

"Not today." She replied automatically. Then with precision she pulled on her bag and walked away from her to the two boys. She was determined about something and that was all Mikan got.

Watching her friend walk out of the classroom Mikan angrily shot a look at the two boys, hoping that they'd flinch in turn, but they didn't. Ruka was speaking in whispers to Natsume, and he was just staring outside.

"Ru-chan! Natsume!" Jumping up from the new voice Mikan turned to see a miniature version of Natsume at the classroom door. She had cropped black hair that reached her shoulders and bangs that extended even further. Her eyes were also that pretty crimson color that Natsume had. The only thing that was different about these two siblings was that she was smiling and he was frowning.

"Aoi."

"Hey Aoi." Ruka greeted before realizing that Mikan was still in the classroom. He nervously looked back at Natsume before sighing.

"Hey, guess what! We're learning how to multiple simple numbers and adding fractions! What are you guys learning?" Obviously she must not have cared if Mikan was there or not since she just smiled at the brunette before running over to their desks.

Then taking this chance Mikan escaped out the door before she could hear another word. She had just confirmed the worst of her suspicions, and that was that the younger sibling had the same aura that the two boys did… albeit she was excited. Nothing seemed to make sense, but then again, when Hotaru came into the picture nothing ever did.

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The week passed without much melodrama as Mikan predicted there would be. Hotaru was her usual self, though a bit frosty around the edges, and the transfers kept to themselves. Some of the miscreants of the class gravitated towards Natsume, and he in turn just ignored them like he did everyone else. The only contact she had with them was basically their seating arrangement.

Some of the girls though, were annoyed that Mikan was seating in front of two of the hottest boys in their class. It had finally taken its toll on the girls, and so a week later they confronted her about it.

"How come you get to sit in front of Natsume and Ruka? And not only that you don't have a seating partner!" They huffed in annoyance but so did Mikan. She had been getting a weird feeling for a while now, and she supposed this was what it was.

She had become the schools idol to the schools miser in less than a week and by jealous girls none the less.

It was lunch time when they had found her sitting alone on the roof. Mikan was poking at her rice when the door slammed open to reveal the groupies and angry mob. Normally Hotaru dealt with idiots like those but now she was giving her the cold shoulder.

"I'm sorry?" Mikan questioned while taking another bite. "I can't help it that the teacher hasn't assigned anyone to sit next to me. It's not my fault the desk next to mine is _broken and the chair is missing." _She had a sinking feeling that she was being watched, but she ignored the feeling to take another bite. It was most likely the girls anyway.

"Just because Imai is your best friend doesn't mean that you can do whatever you like!" Sarah, the boisterous of the group complained, and Erika nodded. "So we have a proposition for you: Stay away from the transfers and we'll be good."

Mikan didn't answer, she wasn't going to bend her will to these girls (who were once her friends), and with that she shrugged her shoulders. Her brunette hair was in its usual pigtails, and that made it easier for people to grab. Unfortunately for Mikan, Sarah made a quick decision over her next course of action.

Sarah was annoyed by the lack of response and that lead to Mikan's lunch being spilled over the roof and her hair pulled at the side. "Ouch!" She cried out before reaching out to grab hold of Sarah. If they wanted a fight, they got one. Taking a handful of her shirt Mikan was about to shove her away but Erika yanked on Mikan's other pigtail.

"Sarah, Erika!" The third girl of the group gasped out but didn't do anything to stop the fight. Mikan on the other hand was scratching, kicking, and grabbing whatever was in her reach before she was shoved off to the side. The girls were done harassing the poor brunette.

"If you don't want a continuation of that you better stay away!" Sarah huffed out, fixing her messed up blonde hair with her hands. Then once she deemed it in good condition she and her group walked away from the girl to the roof access door. The slamming of the door was a wide awakening for Mikan as she stayed situated where she was. How had that happened to her? Why did they do that?

Her stomach began to grumble, but she already knew it was too late to satiate it. Her lunch was wasted once it had fallen off the building.

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Mikan had walked to the Nurse's office once she had found the strength to pick herself off the floor. She didn't cry but the scratches on her arm and the tiny cut on her cheek made it a bit unbearable to stand. Making her way to the door, she saw that it was open a crack, and voices could be heard. One she recognized immediately for it had been Hotaru. She was talking to someone, but the voice was hard to pin point. It was soft, but definitely a guys. Was it that new student…? What's his name...? Ruka!

Leaning in she heard his shaky breath, and Hotaru began with a new question.

"Are you an Alice or aren't you?" There was something about this statement that Mikan didn't like. It only confirmed her fears when the boy reluctantly nodded. Mikan could hear the irritation rolling off of Hotaru as the boy squirmed under her stare.

"The same could be said about you Imai." A new voice appeared right behind Mikan and she jumped up and away from it; right into the conversation. The Nurse's door (which Mikan had taken refuge behind) had crashed opened as Mikan fell through, leaving a speechless Ruka and a surprised Hotaru.

"Mikan?" Hotaru asked without further notice. It didn't take a genius to know that she heard some of the details, but what worried her was that Natsume (another boy and Alice user) was with her. The bruises and scratches on Mikan made Hotaru's eyes flare open just as surprised as they were when she had fallen in. Someone had actually hurt Mikan.

"Natsume… how long have you been there?" The blonde boy asked while Natsume stared evenly at Hotaru.

"…Just as soon as polka dots arrived." He shrugged his shoulders before placing his hands in his pockets. Hotaru raised an eyebrow at Natsume's strange nickname, while Mikan climbed back to a standing position. She was rubbing her head to make sure she didn't hit it too hard and then she remembered something.

"Polka dots?" She asked just as confused as Hotaru was. First she'd deal with the nickname and _then _ask about what the hell these _Alices _were. Staring at the messy black haired boy she saw the smirk appear on his face as he turned back to her. Ruka knew the smirk immediately and before he could do anything about it Natsume opened his mouth.

"If you're going to wear a short skirt you should buy a decent pair of underwear. Those childish prints won't get you anyway, _polka dots_."

Everyone had remained speechless after this. Hotaru was too dumbfounded to actually think of something to say, while Ruka just coughed in embarrassment. Natsume was the only one moving comfortably around the office prodding through the cotton swabs.

Mikan on the other hand was on the verge of explosion. Her hands were clenched so tight that it drew blood in her right hand.

"What did you say…!"

"Natsume, Ru-chan? Are you two in there?" A new voice popped up just as Mikan's rant of death and destruction began. Only it was short-lived when the younger Hyuuga sibling appeared in the Nurse's office. She was cupping her hand up as if cradling a wound and all at once Natsume was in front of her.

"What did you do now idiot." He muttered underneath his breath but Ruka chuckled at the tone. Hotaru and Mikan could hear the concern in his voice even though he had just insulted her… and though he looked neutral there was something more underneath the icy exterior. It was like Hotaru.

"I cut my hand with a pair of scissors. I didn't realize they were opened until I grabbed them." She giggled at her mistake but Natsume just dragged her over to the counter. He was rummaging through things, even muttering: _Where the hell is the nurse. Crappy school. _

"Ruka." Natsume called out from his search. "Clean her cut with soap and water while I find the bandages." Ruka did as he was told and the two girls stood where they were before. The complete change of character was kind of strange to handle seeing as how the discussion they had had been a serious one. Now it seemed to have lightened thanks to Aoi.

"What the hell are you two standing for?" Natsume growled out at Mikan and Hotaru finally. He was pulling open a drawer to his right. He had found some bandages but they weren't the right size.

Hotaru took this instant to walk over to the other desk and pull out a new box of unopened big bandages. Next she tossed it to Mikan, who in turn, walked over to Ruka and Aoi. Ruka had finished putting water and soap on it and Natsume came up with a towel.

"I feel pampered!" Aoi giggled, Ruka smiled a bit at the girl while Natsume patted down her cut with the towel.

"Don't expect it too much you overly happy girl." Mikan didn't know if he was teasing her with an insult or if he couldn't think of anything himself. Contenting herself to popping open the seal to the bandages Mikan pulled out the biggest one she could find and peeled the paper away.

"I remember you!" Aoi exclaimed happily while Mikan carefully placed the bandage on her hand. The brunette only nodded in response while the younger girl chatted on. "I saw you in the classroom with Natsume and Ru-chan! They were surprised by how small the schools were here, but it's perfect for us since we don't like a lot of people knowing our secret!"

"Aoi." Natsume reprimanded while Ruka sighed out. "Obviously when it's a secret you're supposed to _not _tell anyone. Did you?" The crimson eyed boy seemed annoyed at this point and Hotaru was watching the exchange from afar.

"Whoops!" She chuckled, "I didn't say anything to anyone else. It was a slip of the tongue, honestly big brother."

Ruka relaxed while Hotaru stiffened. "Excuse me," She briefly spoke, "but I want to know why three Alice's are here. I've taken pre-cautions to avoid being taken to _that place, _and I don't want to have to move… again." She was annoyed, Mikan could tell as much, but she was confused. Where would she be taken to? Why did it matter? What were Alice's?

Hotaru took a brief glance at Mikan before turning to face Natsume. "And you've also made me have to share information to my idiot over here that she didn't need to know. Not only have you endangered yourselves by travelling in a huge clump of Alice's, you've also brought trouble _here." _The inventor sighed once; the atmosphere was sour once again thanks to her comment.

"It's not like we want to run." Ruka exclaimed out. Mikan could tell from his expression that he was just as mad as Hotaru. "I didn't want to have to stay away from my parents but it was something that had to happen. Natsume and Aoi were the only ones I could turn to." Mikan's head was swirling by the end of the sentence and she took the chance to sit down at the stool next to the nurse's desk.

"Ruka." Aoi quietly whispered to the blonde boy, but Natsume started up. His hands were in his pockets while he scoffed at the inventor and then tossed a glare to Mikan. He apparently didn't like either of them.

"If I had known there was an Alice here I would have steered clear, but since this happened we'll just have to be extra careful. Does anyone else know you're an Alice Imai?" The title he gave her was a chilling one, and it wasn't well received. Hotaru would surely react just as coldly.

"No Hyuuga. I know how to conceal my movements unlike some fools." She tossed a glance to Ruka at this, and he in turn muttered something about some bunny. Aoi chuckled when she heard Ruka's muttering.

"But now I have an idiot, whom is not an Alice, who knows what we are." Hotaru concluded looking at the brunette with two pigtails. She was not happy, but she wasn't sad either. She just seemed a bit frustrated.

"What do you mean idiot," Mikan started with just as much flare as Hotaru had. "Look, I don't care what it is you're talking about, but if it's a secret I can keep it. I won't tell anyone." The four of them went into a lapse of silence once Mikan was done speaking. For eight year olds the conversation was pretty serious.

"That's fine with me." Aoi replied happily at last. "Plus I have the feeling me and… I'm sorry but what is your name again?" Mikan smiled to the girl, glad to have one person with her.

"Mikan Sakura."

"That's a cute name! Can I call you Mikan then?"

"Of course." The brunette nodded.

"Like I was saying, I have the feeling Mikan and I will have an easy time getting to know each other!"

Ruka gave a small smile despite the lack of happiness in their conversation. At least Aoi was making friends. Natsume on the other hand was not pleased. Neither was Hotaru, but there was nothing to do done now. The cat was out of the bag so to speak.

"Idiots of a feather flock together." Hotaru muttered out. Natsume caught this and went to correct it.

"Don't compare my sister to an idiot." He narrowed his crimson eyes to Hotaru but she just shrugged.

"I was speaking as a whole…" She muttered out before exhaling. "Mikan." This brought the pigtailed girl's attention back to Hotaru. Within her grasp were a couple bandages and a can of anti-bacteria spray. "What happened to you?" Mikan revealed her forgotten scratches to the group before sighing.

"…I fell!" Laughing at herself, she waved it off with no concern. "Don't worry about it too much, I'll be fine!" Jumping up from her spot she hopped up and down on her feet to prove that she was a-okay. There was a skeptical look from Hotaru but nothing else came from it.

"…You're too clumsy for your own good, idiot." The girls started putting away the materials they had dragged out and the boys talked amongst each other. They were keeping secrets, but as long as they didn't do anything, everything would be alright. At least Mikan hoped it to be that way.

Once the cleaning was done the group of children left the nurses office and stood in the hall. Lunch period was over about an hour ago and their literature session was about finished. After that class was Math and then school would let out.

"Oi Imai, Polka dots." Mikan had turned to face him just as he called her by her new nickname, and the flames of vengeance broiled off of her.

"What was that you pervert?" If he was going to go calling her names, she would do the same. After all she was pretty immature… and she was eight.

"I'm not a pervert." He curtly responded with a bit of venom on his tongue, but he continued on despite her jump to _correct _him. "We discussed about you knowing about our Alice moron." Natsume started with a dangerous glint in his crimson eyes. Ruka's azure eyes glistened with concern but there was nothing else Mikan could detect from the boys. "I don't think we can completely trust you so I'm warning you. Stay the hell away from us, and we'll stay away from you. That's the deal we have." Ruka shuffled uncomfortably on his toes and Aoi puffed out her cheeks in annoyance.

"I'm not following that big brother; I want to be friends with Mikan and Hotaru! They seem nice!" She complained to her brother and pulled on his long sleeve blue jacket. He just waved her off and continued.

"Fine, let me rephrase; Stay away from Ruka and I and we're golden. I don't want to be around an idiot anymore than I have to."

Hotaru merely nodded at the request, but she had her own thing to say. "Then I request that you two not use your Alice whenever you please… especially Bunny boy over here." She jerked an accusing finger at the blonde boy; Natsume just shrugged at this and moved on.

"Good," Mikan finally stated, she was happy that she didn't have to deal with the two new guys. "I don't want to have to deal with jerks anyways."

"Then we have a deal." Crimson eyes dared Mikan to flare up but she kept her mouth shut. She didn't like being called named but she wasn't going to fall for his little traps.

"We're going Ruka. Aoi, go back to class." Turning on his haunches the raven haired boy lead the way back to the fourth grade class and the others were forced to follow suit. What the group didn't know was that fate was slowly ticking away what little freedom they had left, and more ordeals besides the ones they just dealt with would slowly pop up.

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**T.K.:** Chapter Three is done! I hope you enjoyed that chapter. This is where the subtle differences begin. It's like an alternate version of Gakuen Alice, but I wanted to see what would happen if Ruka/Natsume/Aoi were put into a different situation. What if the fire didn't break out in Ruka's hometown? What if they moved like Hotaru's family and somehow wound up in Mikan's? If you were wondering about my prompt for this, those questions started it. :D Well, I hope you enjoy the rest of the story!

Reviews?

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**Completed:**

**October 8th****, 2010; 9:02 a.m.**


	4. Trying to Get Along?

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Gakuen Alice. They belong to the rightful owner: Tachibana Higuchi. Thank you for your time.

**Summary:** Eight year old Mikan Sakura wanted nothing more than to enjoy her years of elementary school. She was popular, made friends easily, and was happy all the time. How will her life change when Hotaru Imai, a mysterious transfer student, appears into her life?

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"_**Almost nine years old and you still act like an idiot. Not surprised."**_

_**-Natsume**_

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**Chapter Four: **

**Trying To Get Along**

Christmas Break past without anything major happening and New Years were upon them. Just as they promised the boys kept to themselves and the girls kept to themselves. The class could feel the subtle static appear between both of the groups but it quietly dissipated into vapors of nothingness. At times there would be that moment where the atmosphere was too terrible to be within, but then it would become nothing. The class just felt it odd that it happened like it did.

"Happy Early Birthday Mikan," Said an excited Aoi as she bounced up and down on the eight panel Tatami mats. Currently Mikan, Hotaru, and Aoi were all sitting together in her small bedroom. "Open it, open it! I had a fun time picking it out for you and I think it would look cute with that white top you have!"

Mikan laughed at this, easily ripping the perfect wrapping off the box. Inside was a cute pink, yellow, and silver bracelet that was magnetic. There was a small red orb attached to it that hung down, and on it was chiseled: Mikan. Staring at the stone in awe Aoi explained that it was her father who had helped her make the bracelet and did the handwork of writing in the name.

"It's one of a kind!" Aoi happily chirped and Mikan put it on instantly. Staring at the bracelet she couldn't help but be absorbed by the cute design and small written part.

Hotaru passed the brunette a small package of her own, and once opened it was revealed it to be a book on human anatomy. Actually it was one of those: A guide for the Dumb, how to find out what's a part of the Human Body… type of books.

"It's easy to read, and that way you might take a liking to biology more." Hotaru explained with a small smile.

"I love you guys!" Mikan cried out and glomped both of them. Hotaru was a little peeved and whacked her with her fly swatter once again, but Aoi laughed. They were having a good time just when the bedroom door opened revealing two people Mikan didn't want to see.

"Ah! What are they doing here?" Mikan cried out as Natsume looked around her small room and Ruka smiled. Even though they were avoiding each other that didn't stop Mikan from saying: Good morning and Good bye to Ruka. At least she could stand him. It was Natsume that she couldn't stand.

"I heard from Aoi it's your birthday tomorrow, so happy early birthday!" The blonde boy who had taken a liking to carrying a rabbit with him wherever he went now passed Mikan a sealed envelope. It was just a regular card and nothing else was written on it. It had just said Happy Birthday and had five dollars inside.

"Thanks!" Mikan jumped up from her spot and grabbed both of his hands to shake them. She was a little happier now that she knew there weren't going to be any snide comments… yet.

"Almost nine years old and you still act like an idiot. Not surprised."

"Aren't you the same? Shouldn't you come up with better things to say? Jerk."

"Polka dots."

"Meanie!"

"Ugly."

Glaring at the crimson-eyed jerk Mikan felt the ticks appear just above her eye brow. Surely he hadn't come here to bug her and what about their promise? Weren't they breaking it by standing well within her house (technically her grandfathers Hotaru corrected)? The boy just stared at the blank walls before sighing.

"Dad said that he's making the usual New Years stuff, and wanted to know if you wanted to invite Polka and the Ice Queen." Over the past weeks Natsume had been trying to get underneath Hotaru's skin by calling her names, but since nothing worked he just decided that she was purely stoic. Because of such things, he started a new nickname for her resulting Hotaru to be known as the Ice Queen around their school. Mikan had to admit that it was fitting for her personality.

Aoi gasped in delight and she jumped up and down. Grabbing hold of Mikan's hands she asked if she could go eat dinner with them and celebrate. Normally Hotaru would have said no, but in this situation she had a feeling her parents would have wanted her to have some fun with her… friends. Mikan on the other hand was getting just as excited.

"Ah! Let me ask my Grandpa if that's alright. Come on Aoi, let's ask together!" Then the two bolted out of there shouting for her grandpa.

"Oi Imai." Natsume walked to the plain dresser next to Mikan bed before picking up a small plush toy. He was examining it while he spoke up. "You should be careful of the girls in class. Jealousy has a way to come biting people back in the butts."

Then pocketing the toy he walked over to Ruka and stretched. "Err, Natsume that's Sakura's." The blonde boy started but Natsume just stared apathetically at the wall.

"I'll give it back later tonight."

"You better." Hotaru finally stated; her arms were crossed in front of her as if she was stuck on a thought and couldn't get it off of her mind. "It took Mikan five hours each day to draw that stupid thing from the vending machine. I do _not _want to hear her complain about losing it. Or it's your head of course."

"Hn."

"Hey!" Mikan appeared at her doorway with a flush face and a big smile. "My grandpa said that I can go tonight! Aoi said that I could sleepover and everything too! Hotaru, are you going to come?" The brunette ran up to her friend to shake her hands excitedly. "It'll be fun to stay up and watch the fireworks right! Aoi said that her dad found some old fireworks in his art shed too! Fireworks!"

Natsume and Ruka took this chance to walk out of the room into the hall where Aoi was waiting. There was a huge smile on her own face while Natsume sighed.

"You're making this harder than it needs to be Aoi. The more you get closer to her, the harder it'll be to go away." Ruka was the one who spoke in Natsume's steed since the boy was obviously annoyed by Aoi's sudden sleepover invite.

"Sorry Big bro, Ru-chan… but I can't run away either. I want to face it head on and perhaps it'll work out in the end. We all want a happy ending right!" Natsume blow out a steady breath, his hand landed heavily on her hair to ruffle it.

"Agh! Natsume!" She began to complain but when she looked up he saw his smile.

"Just make sure they're out of my room."

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"Wow!" Mikan animatedly yelled outside the small rural home. The Hyuuga's lived separately from the rest of the town and there was plenty of field, grass, and trees to go around. The brunette knew that there were houses such as their own around but it was always a headache to get to. Fortunately the children were young enough to have that extra boost of energy to walk around wherever they pleased.

"You make it sound like we're royalty or something." Natsume commented from behind them. He was standing in his normal posture: hands in pockets, head up straight, shoulders slightly bent back. His eyes shone with fake enthusiasm as the girls continued there "tour" around their estate.

"Hardly," Hotaru coolly stated, in her hands was a number two yellow pencil scribbling down some notes. "She's just overly excited seeing it's her first time over at another person's house besides my own." Her backpack was nestled neatly on her shoulders and the bagworm sleeping bag she had invented was easily compacted at the bottom of it. Inside her pack were little things to keep it interesting… such as her _mosquito_ invention and _fly_ invention.

"Natsume, Ruka, Aoi!" An older male's voice resonated from with the brown log home. Mikan and Hotaru knew the voice since they had just met the man about thirty minutes prior. "Dinner's ready, bring your friends in too!" Truthfully Natsume's and Aoi's dad had just started dinner when they had arrived so to buy himself some time he asked the kids to explore the outside of the home. Surely there they'd find something to do while he finished up his last minute details.

"Coming dad," Aoi yelled out at the top of her lungs. Natsume covered his ears from the shrill echo it created moments after and then whacked his sister in the head. "Do you need to tell the whole neighborhood stupid?"

Ruka brought both of his hands up to referee between the two of them while Mikan puffed out her cheeks. Since she was an only child she didn't know if siblings were supposed to be like that. Then again, if she asked Hotaru she'd probably not know herself because she didn't have any siblings… at least from what she reckoned.

Shaking her brunette head, the girl puffed out her cheeks even more. Even if he was older than Aoi, he shouldn't be hitting his sister. "You shouldn't hit a girl." She crossed her arms and furthered his brows in concentration. Surely she'd look a bit more daring when she did this.

His attention on Aoi was then directed at Mikan as she straightened out. Boring his crimson eyes into her fiery hazel ones he blew out air in dissatisfaction. "What are you going to do about it?" He retorted.

"Obviously I'm going to make you stop! Aoi was just answering your dad!"

Natsume cracked his knuckles within his pockets. An idea formulated in his mind just as he wrapped his fingers around her little plush toy he borrowed. "I highly doubt that."

Aoi and Ruka both sweated when he finished; they realized immediately what was going to happen next, and silently shook their heads. Hotaru noticed the exchange and sighed as well. She just had to rail on the worst possible person around. Mikan, on the other hand, didn't know what was being planned behind the scenes but her mind connected two and two together when Natsume walked over to the brunette to grab her into a choke hold from behind.

He easily held her back into him with his forearm while the other pulled on her pigtail. "Hmm, I suppose I _should_ pick on someone else for a change." Another yank later and Mikan struggled underneath his grip. None of her friends were going to help her out of this… whether it was out of fear or they just wanted to watch, Mikan was forced to find a way out by herself.

The backdoor was yanked open at that moment; Ruka was behind Aoi, Hotaru was writing down some notes again, and Natsume was giving a struggling Mikan a noogie. The father stared at his children first, and then dropped his gaze to Ruka. The smile spread across his gaunt painted face as he watched his children play around.

"You guys coming in or are you going to let my home cooked meal get cold?" He was chuckling under his breath when Natsume let go of the brunette instantaneously. Their father was under the impression that his son may have got himself a little crush since he never teased anyone to that extent except for his sister. He knew that the boy only did that when he wanted to be close or just did it to be mean. The father only hoped it was the first of the two, but since Natsume was Kaoru's son… well he wouldn't be surprised if it had been the latter of the two.

Hotaru was the first of the five to walk up the patio stairs. At first she stopped in front of Natsume's and Aoi's dad, but then she pulled out a small dish of sealed tangerines. Earlier that afternoon when she went home to retrieve her things, her mom had cut up some fresh fruit for the Hyuuga's as a thank you present.

"My mom cut up some fruit for you and your family as a thank you. Please take them." Passing the plate to him with a brief smile she walked into the threshold.

"Thank you Hotaru." He called after her while Ruka and Aoi followed the raven haired girl inside as well. Mikan was still catching her breath while Natsume meandered his way up the patio. He was looking away from his father, but he knew what his father was thinking.

"It's nice to know you're getting along with some others besides Ruka and Aoi, Natsume." Watching the exchange from the field Mikan wondered what the older male meant by that comment. She thought that Natsume might have known what he meant but he just walked inside without another word.

Following everyone's steps Mikan walked by the black-haired, middle aged artist only to be stopped at the doorframe. He had gently patted her shoulder as she passed by him so she hesitated from taking another step. Meeting the gaze of their father, Mikan had discovered that he had the same eyes as Natsume and Aoi, but they were slightly lighter than theirs. The girl wondered if Natsume would look just like him when he passed that point in his life. "Take care of them; those three tend to keep to themselves now."

She didn't have another chance to muddle over that last statement for their father ushered her in to the dining room where everyone else was sitting. Natsume was sitting next to Ruka, and Aoi was on his other side. Hotaru and seating adjacent to Ruka and there were two empty seats besides her. "Alright, let's eat." The father said placing the tangerines on the tables and seating Mikan next to Hotaru. In front of her was Natsume who was idly playing with his fork.

"Now, Now," Natsume's father scolded playfully. "You three normally dig in even before I get in here to set the table, unless you're concerned about our lovely two guests for this evening?" Ruka sputtered a typical boy response, and Aoi went bright like a tomato.

"N-no…" Ruka stuttered aloud as his face tinged with a faint pink. His eyes were shifting to the side to see if he could get any help from Natsume and Aoi but they were too pre-occupied with their father. Natsume was just glaring at his father for making such a bad innuendo, and Aoi was embarrassed by his comment. Mikan snickered while Hotaru covered her mouth with her napkin. Whether she was laughing at the three of them or just wiping her face, no one knew for sure.

Their father silently endured his children's glares and passed Mikan the plate with the salted pork on it. He had easily shifted the awkward moment into an eating atmosphere as soon as he set the food around the table. At first there was the salted pork, then sauerkraut, and finally black-eyed peas. "Once Aoi finishes putting her food on her plate we'll start eating and wish for a happy new year." Mr. Hyuuga clapped his hands together, which was slightly dramatic in Mikan's perspective, and he started a little prayer.

"We thank you for this food that we have received, let it be used in good faith and prepare us for the next year to come. Amen."

"Amen." The children echoed in unison and everyone took their first bite.

"Ugh, this is sour." Aoi complained with a spoonful of Sauerkraut in her mouth. Natsume sniggered at his sister.

"You're not supposed to shovel the food into your mouth Aoi." Mr. Hyuuga laughed as he took a small bite of the salted pork. "At least this isn't as bad as last year." He responded with a gleeful smile. Natsume just shook his head while taking a small bite into his own sauerkraut.

"Yeah, last year you added salt to the pork thinking it needed to be salted and that turned out to be..."

"A disaster!" Aoi chuckled at the memory. "It had such a strange flavor that I almost gagged."

Ruka took a small morsel of food himself and his insides squirmed. "Are you sure this stuff is good to eat before the New Year begins?" Mikan and Hotaru were thinking the same thing but Mr. Hyuuga put down his silverware.

"That's right." Mr. Hyuuga mused. "Ruka, Hotaru and Mikan weren't told of the meaning. Well, I'll tell you now." He straightened in his seat while Natsume exhaled. "I'd take a break if I was you, he can go on for a while if you let him."

Mr. Hyuuga cleared his throat preparing for his "long" speech, and everyone took the chance to eat some more of the food that was in front of them. Mikan had found the textures and tastes of each thing to be intriguing… The Salted Pork was very salty, hard to chew into, and made you stop eating it after the second piece.

The Sauerkraut had a horrible smell to it, and the taste matched the smell easily. It was slimy, and didn't possess any coloring besides a whitish cream color. The best of the meal was surprisingly the black-eyed peas, which didn't really have a flavor itself but tasted good if you mixed in a bit of barbeque sauce.

Hotaru was the one who started it and Mikan just jumped onboard with that idea. Nothing could have fixed the taste of the sauerkraut though.

"The tradition dates back farther than I can remember. I remember back in the academy with Kaoru and some other colleagues were sitting around on New Year's eating the only thing we were allowed at the time."

Hotaru perked up at the academy part of his story. "What do you mean _allowed?"_ She asked with a suspicious look. There was something on her mind that was bugging her now, but Mikan didn't know what it was. Natsume, Ruka and Aoi pushed their empty plates ahead of them as Mikan continued to gnaw on the last of her pork.

"Well, the star system was a bit strict." Mr. Hyuuga admitted slyly. "And since I was a troublemaker for a good portion of my middle school days I wound up with a two star for the remainder of my time there. Something happened in between Christmas and that day that caused me and everyone in our group to lose our stars as punishment."

Shaking his head the children thought that he was lost in his memories of the past, but he easily removed himself from it to continue explaining.

"The no-stars only received these three things: Salted pork, sauerkraut, and black-eyed peas. Everyone was a bit peeved from what I remember; in fact I think your mom raised a fit at the resident leader at the time." He directed a glance to his children and then started again.

"A good friend of ours told us not to fret over it and to be thankful for what we had received. Now this I remember with great detail because this girl grabbed everyone's hands and explained to us why it was good. She said: '_Did you guys know about this tradition passed down about the food they gave to the No stars during New Years?' _Everyone including myself shook our heads. We had always thought it was the academy just being discriminatory to the no stars. She on the other hand just smiled and explained it for us. _'They give them these three items in hopes that their star ranking will go up. For instance the sauerkraut is to remind you of all the bad things that have happened to you that year. It's sour taste and slimy texture is a way to show you that though there is a new year coming you should always be wary of past mistakes.'_"

Aoi shuffled her hands in front of her while she tilted her raven head to the side. All eyes were curiously looking at Mr. Hyuuga as he was telling his tale.

"What about the Salted Pork?" Mikan asked with interest. The brunette found it intriguing that food could remind a person of the year.

Wisely Mr. Hyuuga rubbed his chin, "Salted Pork represented good fortune for the New Year to come. That's what she said anyways. Finally, she said this about the black-eyed peas: _'Then you have the Black-eyed peas. They have no real taste which is perfect because of the fact that they will remind you how bland life can be. In the end, the year will finish and you'll receive some good memories and you'll have some bad ones; but the best part about the year ending is that once you've gone through it you always know that there will always be another year around the corner. You'll still have that chance to move on and live life to the fullest. We are growing teens after all!' _I was amazed that even someone with a dangerous Alice like her could come up with something that grand about something so little, but you'd be surprised." He saw the look his son had given him once the word 'dangerous' had popped up into the conversation.

"Despite her unpopularity within the school many students admired her determination. She was always working hard and never gave up even under the stress and pressures from the admin. Then again she always had Kaoru and Izumi-sensei to help her out. Sometimes her best friend Luna would scare some of the goons away with her own deadly Alice." A small chuckle later, "She was surrounded by a lot of people, so we had nothing to worry about."

Mr. Hyuuga suddenly rose from his seat and everyone snapped away from the story. "That's pretty much the sum of that story. In the end everyone started asking for the No Stars dinner for New Years and the school wasn't pleased. Afterwards they pretty much banned those items from the menu and it hasn't shown up ever since."

The artist started cleaning the table while the children stared up at him expecting more. There seemed like there was a lot that he wasn't sharing with them, and whether that was the truth or not, it appeared it wasn't that time for them to know.

"Well, enough of this old man chatting away. I know! How about you guys go play upstairs while I clean up here? The fireworks should be starting pretty soon, and the best view to see them would be either on Aoi's or Natsume's balcony. If you can get on the roof—"

"We'll help!" Mikan replied, she had always been told by her grandfather to help out whenever there needed things to be done. Since Mr. Hyuuga had made such a great dinner _and _told them of a wonderful tradition, she thought it was only fair to help him out with the household chores.

"It's quite alright Mikan; I just want you kids to have fun." Mr. Hyuuga nodded back to her. Mikan, whether the personality trait was a good one or a bad one, was always stubborn to a fault and so she had instantly thought of a way to help… Except before she could get up and actually do something Natsume's foot collided straight into her shin causing a great amount of pain to course through it.

"Thanks for the food dad, it was good."

"Natsume!" Mikan wailed, and the boys escaped the dining room before Mikan could chase them.

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"Did Hyuuga ever give back the little plush toy to Mikan?"

Azure eyes popped open in shock as Hotaru appeared above him with the same expression she had that entire night. She spoke barely above a whisper so as to not disturb the others within the same room. Apparently she didn't care if she had just awoken one of the occupants with this question.

Mikan was asleep next to a snoozing Aoi and the other one that was awake was Natsume who was sitting on the window sill of his room. He was gazing at something far away as if he wanted to be far away from where he was now.

The children were all camped out in Natsume's room because it was the biggest room compared to Aoi's.

"Err… Imai, it's 3 in the morning."

"That doesn't answer my question Nogi." The amethyst eyed girl responded none the less. There was something about her that made Ruka shiver. And it wasn't a good thing that she did that to him either.

"Umm… He'll return it soon. He's not that mean... I think."

As if on cue the little toy sailed over the sleeping girls and landed right next to them as they dreamed on. Natsume, who had brought himself out of his stance, was standing next to his window. His pajama hoodie was covering a majority of his face.

"Happy?" He spoke a little louder than the two had been whispering before, as if he didn't care if the two of the girls awoke from their slumber.

"Yes," She finally concluded, "because I don't want to listen to her complaining about losing it." Then without further ado the inventor curled over into her sleeping bag and joined the other girls sleeping. Ruka took that opportunity to ask Natsume about the toy.

"Why'd you take the toy from Sakura's room anyway Natsume?"

Crimson eyes looked back outside where Ruka couldn't see them anymore. He figured something was up when the boy had just randomly taken a girl's toy. The animal lover especially found it odd that Natsume took the toy from someone that he didn't like that much.

"It was the same." The boy resolved just when Ruka was about to give up.

"The same?"

"Before we left your town Aoi found that similar toy in the vending machine. I couldn't get it no matter how hard I tried and yet…" He wandered off the thought. Ruka pretty much guessed what the boy was thinking about.

"Sakura managed to get it, I get it." The blonde boy chuckled before a pillow landed squarely in his face. "Ouch!"

"Shut it Ru-chan. Go to bed." Finishing the conversation, the raven haired boy laid down on his own sleeping bag, situated next to Aoi's, and positioned his head neatly on his bent arm. He was faced away from everyone else but Ruka could tell that the boy was frustrated.

"Good night."

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**T.K.:** Chapter four is complete. I'm so stressed fro college exams and stuff! D: I just need a break for once. Also, it would be marvelous if someone reviewed. Anyone? Anyone at all? Hope you enjoyed this installment! =D

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**Completed: October 8th, 2010; 9:20 a.m.**


	5. The Forgotten Valentine's Day

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Gakuen Alice. They belong to the rightful owner: Tachibana Higuchi. Thank you for your time.

**Summary:** Eight year old Mikan Sakura wanted nothing more than to enjoy her years of elementary school. She was popular, made friends easily, and was happy all the time. How will her life change when Hotaru Imai, a mysterious transfer student, appears into her life?

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"…_**Guess what Dad packed for us to have today! They're strawberries!"**_

_**-Aoi**_

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**Chapter 5: **

**The Forgotten Valentine's Day**

January passed, and so did first half of February. Everyone had slowly begun to get accustomed to the new transfers and eventually things simmered down for Mikan. The girls ignored her just as she ignored them. After New Year's Mikan had come a bit closer to Natsume and Ruka, but at school they went separate ways. The boys had their own things to do, and so did Mikan. Hotaru didn't bother with them because she was currently working on something in the privacy of the science lab. It wasn't odd for Hotaru to disappear into the confines of the lab, but people did pose the question on _what _she was doing.

"Hotaru, what are you doing for lunch?" Mikan asked her best friend once the bell rang. Their teacher had ended class early for lunch to prepare their valentines party she had been planning. Everyone was supposed to stay out of the classroom until the teacher was completely finished with the decorations.

"Nothing of importance; don't you have someone else to bug besides me?" Her pale hand pointed to Aoi who had appeared around the corner. The black haired, crimson eyed girl was holding a small package in her hand and she had a huge smile plastered on her face. When she saw Mikan and Hotaru the girl began to wave with her free hand to beckon them to come over to where she was.

"Aoi, Happy Valentine's day!" Mikan cheerfully greeted the younger girl as they approached her. The younger girl's hands had easily plucked off the top of the basket to reveal freshly pulled strawberries.

"Happy Valentine's to you too Mikan! Same to you Hotaru! Guess what Dad packed for us to have today! They're strawberries!"

Mikan stared into the weave basket with a new found interest. She hadn't had strawberries in forever, and since it wasn't the end of winter yet, strawberries weren't in season yet. Inside they were secured in a cute little handkerchief covered in bunnies and cats.

"Let's eat them while we're waiting for the party to start then." Hotaru replied and the two girls agreed. Except Aoi was looking around when she agreed.

"Wait; can we get Natsume and Ru-chan before we eat them? Natsume loves strawberries and dad said that he wanted to give him a surprise. Mikan, do you know where they might be?" Aoi quizzically looked around the vicinity. Except for the small playground, tire swing, and the school building nothing else was nearby.

"Hmm… Maybe he's by the big tree?" Mikan curiously said and Aoi dragged the brunette instantly towards where she indicated.

"Then come on! I'm sure he'll be extremely surprised!" Aoi and Mikan ran away from Hotaru before she could follow after them.

"I suppose I could hold off on the invention. Strawberries sound good right about now."

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"Natsume… Ruka? Where are you two?" Mikan, Aoi, and Hotaru had split up in order to find the two boys. It was strange how the two boys had just disappeared after class had ended, and no one had a clue where they were. Aoi had asked a couple of their classmates earlier but they said that they hadn't seen them.

"That's strange." Mikan wondered to herself. Where would two boys go if they were still on campus? Walking around the school's gate she noticed two black limousines parked with two or three adults conversing to each other. One of them had blonde hair while the other one had a darker hair color. It wasn't as dark as Hotaru's or Natsume's hair, but it was still pretty dark. The other male had brown hair that was cropped evenly. It had looked like they were talking about something important but the blonde haired, (and surprisingly) purple-eyed male looked straight at her.

She hadn't realized that she was gaping at them, but then again who wouldn't? She had never seen those types of automobiles around their town before, and why would they be hanging around their school? He seemed oblivious to her shock of them being there, and just approached her with a kind smile. Her next immediate thought went from: what are they doing here to a… is s/he a female or a male? Cause s/he's really pretty.

"I remember you! I've seen you walking home before, anyways do you go here? Could you help us by answering a couple of our questions?" There was something odd about this person, but Mikan didn't sense anything wrong with him. He was too cheerful, and when had he seen her walking home? At this point the other two adults popped up next to the blonde haired male and looked at her quizzically.

"Uh…" She started before nodding her head. "Sure…"

"Wonderful!" The blonde haired guy (or was it a girl?) kneeled down so that he was at eye-level with Mikan. "Before we start, I'm Narumi; what's your name sweetie?" He extended his hand out to her offering a handshake.

Taking his hand delicately she stared into his bright purple eyes. "I'm Mikan… Mikan Sakura."

"Alright then, may I call you Mikan then? Good, good." He happily shook her hand before continuing on with his business.

"These two lovely gentlemen behind me are my colleagues Misaki-sensei and Makihara-sensei. We're teachers from another academy in Tokyo and we were wondering if there were any new students in the area?" Mikan tilted her head in confusion. Why were some teachers from Tokyo here? Another second an image of Hotaru, Ruka, Natsume and Aoi popped into her head… and she instantly blew the thought away. Surely she had nothing to worry about.

"Er…" She laughed nervously.

Narumi chuckled to himself before snapping his fingers. "That must have been too vague, how about I ask if you know who they are? Were there new transfers by the name of Hyuuga or Nogi?" The two teachers behind him nervously backed up from where Narumi was kneeling down. Narumi, on the other hand, kept continuing on as if nothing was wrong.

"They should be around your age and maybe in your class even? You see, we're trying to locate—!" The next thing Mikan knew the nice blonde haired man known as Narumi exploded from his spot backwards to the outside of the gate, and Mikan tumbled the opposite direction thanks to the aftershock. When she was able to move again she found that Natsume and Ruka were standing right behind her. Natsume had a glare while Ruka glanced around.

Narumi began to laugh out just as Misaki was pulling him up. There were only a few scratches on his face. "Hey, what do you know; Natsume was here after all Misaki-sensei!"

The brown haired teacher just sighed before pulling out a handkerchief for the man to wipe down his clothes. "You would think you'd be mad after he tried to kill you."

"Natsume," the one known as Makihara-sensei called out at last. He was standing close to Narumi, the blonde one who was starting to wipe away some of the dust from his clothes. "Don't make things difficult when it doesn't have to be."

Whether it had been friendly advice or not, Natsume just ignored it and stared at the fallen brunette. "Get up polka dots. Didn't your grandfather tell you not to talk to strangers?" At this point Ruka moved to help Mikan up from her fallen spot and Natsume positioned himself so that he was in front.

"Ouch… What happened?" Mikan whimpered out; though she didn't have any bleeding wounds she did have a couple scratches and bruises. Ruka wiped down the dirt from her face as he frowned.

"Natsume…" It seemed to the brunette girl that the two boys were severely on guard thanks to these new teachers. It definitely seemed odd that they knew about the new transfers too.

"Natsume, you always cease to amaze me." Narumi was chuckling once again despite how dangerous the last couple of minutes were. "You were using a good chunk of fire power in that weren't you?"

The crimson eyed lad just scoffed. Mikan couldn't see his expression but she could tell from the way he squared his shoulders that he didn't like those teachers. "… I just saw a pervert and my instincts kicked in. Too bad you weren't gravely injured." Some children started to appear around the corner wondering what was happening at the front of the school. Somehow the huge crater, the big explosion, and loud noises weren't helping their imaginations either.

"As cruel as always," Narumi gave a smile to the three before turning his attention to the one known as Misaki.

Hotaru and Aoi were one of the first to appear and they immediately went to the center group. Aoi was hiding behind Hotaru's right side and the inventor took note of the circumstances. With Natsume in front, Ruka on his right and Mikan right behind them she could only imagine what ghastly events happened.

"Ah!" Narumi had noticed Aoi and Hotaru approaching and gave them a fleeting smile. "If it isn't Hotaru Imai and Aoi Hyuuga; it's good to see you again Aoi." He chuckled but eventually stopped when a flame appeared on his sleeve.

"Natsume… don't hurt him…" Being the concerned younger sister Aoi ran over to her brother and tugged on his shirt sleeve. Whether it was because of that or not the raven haired boy stopped the fire with a sigh.

"Okay, okay." Narumi finally said clapping his hands together. All of the admin, students, and teachers from the rundown school had come out to see what was going on, and despite there being a large group of people Narumi had complete order over them all.

"Let's see, besides Natsume Hyuuga, Aoi Hyuuga, Ruka Nogi, and Hotaru Imai can I please have everyone report back to their classrooms. Everything will be settled once we're done chatting, hmm?" It was strange how no one made any move against the notion; Mikan had found it odd that the _teachers _were listening to what Narumi was saying.

Filing away everyone but Natsume, Aoi, Ruka, and Hotaru were around. Except for one other; Mikan was still standing right behind Ruka with confusion written all over her face. Somehow she couldn't get it past her mind how much influence Narumi seemed to have.

Misaki narrowed his eyes in the brunette's direction and Narumi quirked an eye brow himself. With his right hand he twisted his earring and stared directly at Mikan. "Mikan, why don't you head on back to class? They'll join you in a few minutes."

Mikan felt Ruka flinch but she stood her ground. More confusion washed through her before she finally realized what was going on. Perhaps this person has a lot of influence because…

"Oh my gosh!" Mikan gasped, "Are you a transvestite?" Silence reigned between them. Natsume and Ruka were shocked that she said such a stupid thing, Aoi was confused, Hotaru just sighed, the teachers standing behind Narumi were speechless, and the blonde haired male lost his footing.

Misaki took this chance to mumble something to Makihara and then the teacher left to the first black limousine. "Err… no, I'm not." Narumi smiled to the brunette and readjusted his earring. "Mikan, do you feel sick, or nauseated at all? Maybe a headache even?"

Gripping on to Ruka's shirt sleeve Mikan shook her head at the strange question. Why did it feel like everyone's attention was on her now? Her nerves were tingling when she stared up at Ruka's shocked eyes. Then trying to avoid his line of vision, the brunette turned to Natsume hoping he'd give her the same evil glare as always. No, he was doing the same thing that Ruka was doing. Except he moved his attention to Hotaru, and she had the same deer in the head lights kind of look.

"Hmm…" Narumi pondered to himself, his hand stroking his chin in thought. "It couldn't be…" He murmured to himself before Misaki whispered something into his ear. While they were conversing the children crowded around Mikan and started their own conversation.

"Alright Imai, you have some explaining to do." Natsume was the first to perk up leaving Mikan completely confused.

"What's there to explain Hyuuga? That you three have brought over the academy dogs to fetch us?"

"No, I didn't mean that." The boy started with a shake of his head. "Why didn't Polka dots listen to Naru?" Hotaru took a quick glance at Mikan before shrugging her shoulders. "How would I know? What type of Alice does he have?"

"Human Pheromones." The boy said it with a bit of disgust, Mikan noted in her head.

The inventor's eyes flared at this. "I don't know, maybe he made it look like he used it. Or maybe her stupidity blocked it."

Sensing Mikan's confusion, Ruka patted her hand lightly. This, in turn, grabbed Mikan's attention to the whole situation and she responded. "Narumi-sensei seemed nice enough… I don't know why everyone is acting the way they are…"

Aoi sheepishly smiled before explaining. "Natsume doesn't like him, or any of the teachers from there. I haven't had the chance to get to know them though since I'm always sent to my room or back to class." Natsume just wrapped his arm around his little sister's neck and pulled her into a chokehold.

"He's just a gay teacher. That's all he is… and also dad and I do that because we're trying to protect you dummy, you're too naïve for your own good."

Hotaru pulled out her little notebook and she started looking through all of her notes from beginning to end. Her eyes rapidly skimmed over details before resting on a couple pages. "There were times when I couldn't use it then… here too." She murmured while Ruka tilted his head in confusion.

"What do you mean Imai?" Ruka questioned.

Mikan wanted an explanation too, but she was trying her hardest to come up with a reason for all of this too. "Hotaru, what's going on?"

"I don't know, you dummy; that's what I'm trying to figure out. I couldn't use my Alice on certain days, and those days just happened to have been with you. Maybe it _is _your stupidity that blocks it."

The struggling from the Hyuuga sibling stopped when Aoi tugged on her brother's shirt. This brought everyone's attention to the right side of their circle where another person had joined in on their little conversation. Narumi was happily chewing on an apple and was kneeling once again. It appeared that he had been there for quite some time already since he had gone about six or seven bites into the apple.

"You wound me Natsume," The teacher replied when the children's attention was solely on him, "Misaki-sensei went to distract the _academy dogs_ so that you guys can go run to your class. There's something we have to check out around here before hand." Taking a moment to take a bite out of his apple the teacher rose to his feet and looked up at the sky.

"So without further ado, Mikan can you answer one of my questions?" Mikan stared nervously up at Narumi, while Natsume, Ruka, and Hotaru suspiciously glared at him.

"Where is your mom? Perhaps I can talk with her?" At the end of the question he was completely serious, so serious Mikan clenched Ruka's sleeve even more. Why would he want to talk to her mom… wait, she didn't even know who her mom was.

"I don't… have a mom or a dad. I only have grandpa." She said before gazing at her friends. They seemed to be interested in the way Narumi acted. "I see… I'm sorry to hear that Mikan, I didn't know. Well we're going to keep what just happened to ourselves then," Bringing his apple to his lips for another bite he waved them away from the front gate.

"We'll see each other in the future I'm sure, Adieu!"

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

The strawberries were long forgotten by the time they returned to their prescribed classes. School went as it had before except Mikan could feel Natsume staring at her intently. Something strange had happened earlier that afternoon, and somehow Mikan was under the impression that it was about to get much worse.

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"Polka dots." The bell had rang a few seconds earlier as the girl in question was getting ready to pick up her things. Normally she wouldn't be getting her things ready until after cleaning the classroom, but with what happened at lunch the teachers decided to call it an early day and send kinds home. Some of the Academy teachers (from what Hotaru was saying) had started to pop up around the neighborhood now and black cars started to appear out of thin air.

"Ruka and I are walking you home. Get your stuff and let's go." Hotaru popped up to the left side of Mikan with a stern expression herself. Yes, something was definitely wrong with what had happened earlier… And somehow the atmosphere around the crimson eyed boy just got dangerous too.

"Sure… But what's going on?" She looked to Ruka for the answers that she wanted but he just coughed looking away. It looked to Mikan that he didn't want to explain at the moment.

"We'll explain later." Hotaru answered in a clipped tone. She seemed agitated but she wasn't taking it out on anyone. Rising from her seat, the pigtailed girl followed after her friends still lost on what had just occurred. Her mind was in jumbles, and just like a puzzle, it would take time and patience to get it back together again.

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

Grandpa had welcomed the five kids into his house once they had gotten there. Mikan and Hotaru greeted him with Grandpa/grandfather while Natsume, Ruka, and Aoi called him Sir. Though Mikan's grandpa liked respect he felt children their age should be accustomed to calling their elders accordingly.

"You kids can call me grandpa; I find it odd to be called '_sir' _all the time." He chuckled under his breath while Ruka and Aoi corrected themselves.

"If that is alright, si—Grandpa," Ruka corrected himself, and Aoi cheerfully nodded.

"Okay! Thank you Grandpa! Wow, it feels weird saying that since we never met our grandpa before." The girl mused on to the older man while he chuckled.

Natsume walked past the older male before turning his way. He wasn't frowning anymore; and in fact, he had the same stoic face as Hotaru's. "Gramps."

"Hohoho, Mikan, take your friends upstairs while I prepare some fruit bowls for you all. You'll be working on your homework I'm hoping?" He had that look in his eye that said: '_do your homework or sparks will fly.' _Nodding her pigtailed head, Mikan acknowledged the correct answer.

"Yeah, we have a project coming up and all…" She murmured at the stairs. Hotaru only nodded in response and Aoi laughed. The children could tell she was lying a mile away, but it was the answer her grandfather wanted to hear.

"I'm glad my granddaughter has finally taken the steps to maturity. I thought it had been a lost cause." He murmured out loud causing Natsume to snicker.

"Grandpa!" Mikan complained and he left the living room.

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

"I'm a what?" Mikan asked for the last ten minutes. Her mind already in shambles thanks to earlier had now officially cracked when Hotaru explained one more time.

"You're an Alice just like us except I don't know what your power is. For now all we can assume is that the teachers will not leave without us in tow."

Ruka, who was sitting Indian style on Mikan's laid out futon, had decided to talk about his experiences. "There's the strange thing about that comment Imai…" He was petting his rabbit as he spoke. "If the teachers wanted to take us with them they would have done so. Back where I lived they would constantly kidnap me and my family would rescue me. It was an endless battle between these two forces… and Natsume got caught in the middle of it when he transferred in."

The boy who was mentioned sat at the open windowsill. "That was nothing Ruka, you know I hate running away from my problems… if I could I wouldn't run. I would fight them off just like your mother did." They seemed to share a chuckle at a new found memory but Hotaru interrupted it with a snide comment.

"Well I'm not surprised about that since your mother is a well-known actress, Bunny-boy."

Aoi chuckled at this before receiving a look from her brother. "Sorry Ru-chan, I didn't mean to laugh."

The blonde boy just nodded at her and petted his rabbit slowly around his ear. "No harm Aoi, just as I was saying, they would kidnap. Today they had the perfect opportunity too and yet…"

"They didn't." Natsume concluded. He was staring out past the front yard to see a third black car drive by. "And _he _didn't pop up either. Not at our house, and not at the school either."

"Then," Hotaru started as if inspired by what Ruka and Natsume were saying. "You're saying something may happen in the future. Like the calm of the storm before it strikes."

Both of the boys nodded in agreement to the analogy. "I wouldn't doubt it. They reacted strangely to Polka dots, and that only makes our situation worse. We should tread cautiously from now on, or else we might get burned."

Mikan was just about done with the name and she scoffed. "I have a name you know! It's not polka dots or ugly, it's _Mikan!_" Huffing, she crossed her arms over her chest and exhaled a shaky breath. The day had just been so arduous for her.

"…Like I care." The nine year old crimson eyed boy just stuck his tongue out at the girl while she grabbed a pillow to chuck at him. He easily dodged the assault and the pillow flew out the window.

Mikan screamed before she scrambled over to the open window and Natsume curiously peered down over her shoulder. He noticed someone was down there, and it wasn't someone the children would be happy to see. Just like Narumi said, they were bound to see each other again. Glaring down at the ground, Natsume caught the attention of Narumi as he waved the pillow side to side for him and Mikan to see.

"Hello Mikan! Oh, Natsume's there too? That's perfect then, I need to discuss something with you and the others so won't you come down?"

Quirking his eye brow, the raven haired boy pulled Mikan back from the window frame and slammed it shut. Finally he stuck his tongue out so that the blonde teacher could see and closed the window cover with a force to be reckoned with.

"Don't break my window Natsume!"

"Tch."

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

**T.K.:** Hey all! How do you like Chapter Five? Unfortunately there is no romance. :( But don't be discouraged not to read because of that aspect. This is a budding friendship after all. :D (Also they are only nine! xP) Also thank you for reviewing! =D It made my day, Julie!

Also, If you're confused with how old everyone is this is the age chart!

Mikan= Nine - (Mikan's Birthday is January 1st, unless other wise stated in future stories)

Natsume= Nine - He's older (or is he?) xD

Hotaru= Eight

Ruka= Eight

Aoi= Seven

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**Completed: October 14th, 2010; 9:24 a.m.**


	6. Suddenly A Break?

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Gakuen Alice. They belong to the rightful owner: Tachibana Higuchi. Thank you for your time. I don't own Twinkle Twinkle either! =D

**Summary:** Eight year old Mikan Sakura wanted nothing more than to enjoy her years of elementary school. She was popular, made friends easily, and was happy all the time. How will her life change when Hotaru Imai, a mysterious transfer student, appears into her life?

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"_**Time is not given easily; the principal wants things to be settled as quickly as possible."**_

_**-Persona**_

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**Chapter 6:**

**Suddenly A Break?**

"As I was saying before," The blonde haired teacher started to explain to Mikan's Grandfather at the dining table. Mikan had tried to warn her grandfather not to open the door to the man, but her grandfather paid no heed to her words. Plus Narumi had a good reason for coming up to the door thanks to the thrown pillow from before. If only Natsume had taken the hit, the man probably wouldn't have gotten in easily.

"My colleagues and I believe Mikan is… special compared to some other children…"

The children were standing within earshot of the table, but far enough away so that they wouldn't be seen behind the sliding door.

"Naru's doing his speech on: Your child is special so you should enroll them into the school." Natsume explained in a bored fashion. His hands were resting in his pockets while everyone leaned in to listen in.

"There's something different about the way he's doing it though…" Ruka murmured stroking his bunny as he said it. "I can't tell if he's just informing her grandfather or giving him a warning."

"I'm sorry young man," Mikan's grandfather replied as a chair screeched backwards. It indicated that someone had moved back from their spot but whether it was Narumi or her grandfather was the question though.

"But I can't make Mikan do anything. She's a stubborn grandchild, and I don't think it's a good idea to send children away from their homes below a certain age." Mikan could only imagine her grandfather escorting the young teacher out since the conversation was over. Natsume just slid the door open a tad bit just so Hotaru, Mikan, Aoi and Ruka could watch from the back.

From their position Narumi was standing in front of the table while her grandfather was still sitting at the table. Mikan's Grandpa was sipping his tea while the teacher placed his hands evenly on the table. It looked as if he was talking to a wall. "Somehow I knew you would say that," Narumi finally responded with a quirky smile.

The atmosphere around them changed from a tense feeling to a jovial one. "Well, the reason why I paid you a visit was because I wanted to warn the children; not enroll them. Natsume, Aoi, Ruka, Hotaru, Mikan why don't you stop hiding and come out? We know you're there." The chuckling emanated from both the elder and the teacher as an embarrassed Aoi and Mikan appeared behind the sliding door. Natsume and Ruka looked nonplussed, and Hotaru just blandly stared at the surroundings.

Everyone stopped right behind Mikan's grandfather and stared straight at their guest. Mikan hadn't noticed before but today the teacher was wearing a white frilly shirt with regular black pants. They were decorated with shiny gems on the cuffs and matched perfectly with his accessories.

"Luckily I've managed to convince Makihara and Misaki to not mention you all to the school yet. Though I can't say how long we can withhold this information before _that man _pops up in the area to investigate. You can relax Natsume; he does not know you and your family have moved here…"

Mikan turned her attention to Natsume whose fists were clenched deep in his pockets. She could tell that he was nervous by the way he bit his bottom lip.

"…Yet there is a chance that he will find you in the future. So I'd like to leave you with a bit of caution. For one, avoid using your Alice as much as possible. It is especially important for you all to stay incognito here since there are five of you now. Secondly, if you can, try not to attract any attention. Back in Ruka's town you all walked around like you owned the place; especially you Natsume, so I think this time you all should blend in. Finally stick together as much as possible. You'll find out that friends are more reliable than the occasional adult."

"Like you?" Hotaru briefly interrupted. How she was holding a Grape Popsicle in her hand was beyond Mikan.

"Err… Well, it's good to have friends that you can trust, but I do hope that you all can come to trust me as time goes on." He covered his mouth with his hand. He seemed a bit nervous thanks to her sudden words.

What Mikan couldn't understand was how Hotaru managed to get an ice cream during that entire conversation. Also there was something foreboding from the warnings he just gave the children. Would something happen that would change their lives? Would they be hurt, captured, or taken away by strange people? Mikan didn't have the answers. Her mind was already in overload from just thinking about what would happen. Why was she an Alice? What type of Alice was she? What Alice types were her friends/enemies?

"Alright!" Narumi-sensei exclaimed with a clap of his hands. He seemed to snap out of his nervousness.

"That's all that I came to say, don't you think you all should head on home now? It's getting pretty late already." Excusing himself out Narumi shook Mikan's grandfather's hand before showing himself out of their home. Taking this chance Mikan subtlety left the room to follow him out.

"Narumi-sensei…" Mikan quietly asked to him. He, in turn, gave her a surprised look.

"Ah, Mikan; what can I do for you?" He was about to open the door but decided that it might be better to go to the girl. Her hazel eyes glanced up hesitantly at the blonde teacher, and despite all of the cautions from Natsume she didn't feel like Narumi was a bad person.

"I wanted to know… what is my Alice? Everyone was confused about it and so am I."

The corner of his lips lifted and she felt a little reassured. "To tell you the truth, I'm not sure myself." He chuckled but Mikan wasn't enthused. In fact she felt like she was about to do a face plant because of the blunt comment. "So that's why we're just going to observe for now. I have a good feeling that you're an Alice just like the others; I just don't know what it is yet. For now, just take heed with everything that you all do and avoid any conflict with the academy teachers that will wander around. With more time that passes, the more you'll be seeing us and the more likely hood that you will be forced to consider joining the academy. Just be careful and also," The teacher cheerfully patted her on her head.

"Make as many memories as you can with your friends. You never know what could happen when dealing with the Alice community." The teacher remained as jubilant as always, keeping that suave look and never looking sad in front of the children. Opening the front door the teacher looked back to the eight year old girl.

"Goodnight Mikan!"

Less than two seconds later the teacher walked himself out. The door closed with a deft click and Mikan felt her shoulders slump. "Goodnight Narumi-sensei."

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

The car door closed shut behind him as the blonde haired teacher with the purple eyes entered into the small car. It had taken him a couple minutes to relax, but when it did he leaned his head back against the upholstery. He was exhausted from traveling the area for Ruka, but he wasn't expecting to find more Alice's around. Natsume and Aoi, he knew would be there, but it was Hotaru that had thrown him off. Then there was Mikan. He didn't know if the young child was a blood relation to _her, _but Misaki did remind him not to pry too much into it. At least for Mikan's sake; if he had discovered that she was then surely she would suffer under the academy's jurisdiction.

"Having a rough night?" The voice made Narumi jump from his spot.

Turning his attention to the left he found another of the Alice Academy's administration sitting. He was pale, dressed in all black, and had accessories all over. His black spiky hair jetted out to the sides without the help of hairspray or gel. One of the things that were well known about this man was that he wore around his restraining mask that looked like a white masquerade mask. It only covered the portion of his face, but it still sent chills down people's spines just thinking about what he truly looked like beneath the mask. Only a couple knew what was underneath, and Narumi just happened to be one of those people. Having worked with him over the years Narumi noticed that he matured into a… scary individual.

"Persona… I didn't see you there." Narumi pulled up the first facade he could think of, and that just happened to be his jovial expression. "No, I was just confirming an Alice candidate. Apparently I was wrong. How's the search going for the Hyuuga family?" He had hoped that the man wouldn't suspect anything yet, or ask any questions about what he had been up to the last day or so.

"I hope you don't think I'm stupid Narumi, I just came from their new residence a moment ago. Natsume and Aoi weren't there but their father was. I told him to reconsider his options before he makes another move. Apparently the Nogi boy is with them as well, but you knew that didn't you?" Narumi felt his eye brow twitch under the pressure, but continued to smile.

"I suppose lying to you wouldn't help any of us would it Persona?" Another chuckle later, "I've got things under control. The children will come to the academy just like you and the principal want but you have to give it time." The man just scoffed at the comment.

"Time is not given easily; the principal wants things to be settled as quickly as possible. He's given you six months to finish this. If not I will step in and finish the job myself. That is all."

"Of course," Narumi smiled. "I've got this covered, so please reassure the principal that I will do my job."

"I'm sure." Persona skeptically replied and silence replied back.

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

"So the annual band contest is coming up again! Are we going to compete this year Hotaru?" Surprisingly four months had flown by without the children knowing. It was the start of summer in the second week of June and everyday there would be slight changes. At the beginning there was a couple black cars driving through every now and then there would be one or two Alice Academy Admins walking around the streets.

Currently there were cars parked on every street corner with men in black suits watching the children's every move. There were times when one would start to approach them and (luckily for Mikan and Hotaru) Natsume with Ruka would save them by helping them escape. To Mikan it felt like an adventure at first, but it was a pain in the butt now.

Sometimes on the way home Mikan and Hotaru would see Narumi drinking a small latte at the little coffee shop and cautiously they'd say hi, chat for a while before making like a tree and leaving. From there little chats every week the children managed to reveal that the academy did find out. (Whether it was from Narumi or not was not mentioned). All they did know was that their earlier plan was down the drain.

Natsume and Ruka had rarely been seen without the girls behind them. After they had discovered Mikan was/maybe an Alice the boys had stuck to her like glue but as time went on they only gravitated. The three of them barely talked, but they walked around together. This didn't improve their relationship anymore than before though; Natsume would call Mikan names and she would childishly do the same. Ruka quietly watched the two before calming the situation down. Aoi and Hotaru made little bets about who may win (Mikan vs. Natsume) and normally Hotaru would win, but sometimes Aoi would just because she would immediately bet on her brother.

"It's not a good idea Mikan." Hotaru replied. She was busy working on these things called panda earmuffs for communication purposes. "Those Alice goons are crawling around the woodwork's."

Mikan puffed her cheeks out before laying her head on the small wood table. The coolness emanating from it reminded her of the previous year when it wasn't so hectic. "Moe… I thought it would give everyone a chance to forget what's been going on. Everything's just so sour right now." Now she was moving her index finger up and down the top of the table as if hoping to draw lines on it.

A couple moments after Hotaru let out a breath. "You have two days to come up with potentially good lyrics. If it's crap like last year I'm not correcting it."

Jumping from her spot the brunette smiled ruefully. "Okay!"

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All five of the children were currently in Hotaru's living room. Hotaru's mom and dad hadn't come home from their work yet, but Hotaru knew it wouldn't be a problem for them to come over.

"Why are we here again?" Natsume had his hands behind the back of his head while he was leaning back with all of his force. Underneath him was Mikan who was being pushed forward thanks to his constant shoving. Using her feet the eight year old tried to push back with the same amount of force he was using, but she was over powered.

"Mikan said that there was some sort of band contest thing kids can sign up for. Last year you guys won didn't you?" Aoi was hoping to help out Mikan who was still stuck beneath Natsume's back. She had hoped that her brother would tease the girl less but that didn't happen.

"That's correct." Hotaru replied with a small smile. Ruka felt a drop of sweat roll down his right cheek. "I had a lot of ice cream that summer."

Ruka placed his bunny down on the floor before reading the pamphlet Mikan had given to him. "It says that you have to have a group of two or more in order to join. This year the group would win a summer's worth of watermelon as well as recognition from the town board. That sounds kind of interesting." He mused before passing the paper to Natsume for him to read. The boy just stared at the contents before crumpling it up into the air and tossed it into the trashcan nearby. It landed squarely into the container without making a mess.

"Do you realize the situation you're in moron?" Mikan wouldn't take that answer willingly without a fight. In fact she was determined to enter just so that she could get everyone to forget said situation.

"Yeah, but I want everyone to have fun at the same time. We can't just stay hidden forever, and besides from what has been happening I think they already know that there are Alice's here." Mikan was still confused about the ordeal on Alice's but after a while the girl received little tidbits of information from Narumi-sensei. Apparently an Alice was a gifted person who can use a specific power.

For example, he told her, Natsume and Aoi had the latent ability. It was one of the common Alice's found and was easily trained. Hotaru was under the technical ability type, another common one and they all ranged from the arts, to cooking, to machinery. Then there was Ruka who was a somatic ability type. His was a little bit rarer to find and they were harder to train from what the teacher said. When Mikan asked what she might be under the teacher just took a sip of his coffee.

"_Well," _He had said, _"If I'm correct in my assumption you'd be in the Special Ability Class." _Further pressing, Mikan found out that was one of the rarest Alice's to be found, and they were very hard to train just because they were so rare.

Reliving her memory she didn't realize that Natsume had positioned himself to whack her hard on her forehead with his index finger. Reveling in pain, the girl tried not to cry from the pain coursing through her head. "OUCH! Why did you hit me you big meanie!"

"…because you're an idiot."

"I am not!"

"Enough you two," Hotaru said with an authoritative voice. "I do not want to have to referee you two anymore than I have too. Mikan, pull out the lyrics that you've been _diligently _working on. If they aren't up to par then we're dropping the whole idea. That was our deal after all." Purple eyes narrowed to the girl as she pulled out a couple sheets of paper from her pocket. The papers were wrinkled from the top to the bottom with lots of lines crossed out with permanent black market. It had looked like she had been working on it for a long time and that just happened to be the rough draft.

"Here it is, sorry it's a bit wrinkled Hotaru. I was working on it for a while in our last class." Motioning her hand forward for the paper, Mikan happily gave it to the inventor and everyone waited for the last verdict. There was no emotion on her face, nor was there any inclination to her vote. After a while she sighed and passed the paper to Aoi who eagerly started to read the lyrics herself.

"Wow! Mikan, I didn't know you can come up with something so inspiring! I like it!" Aoi commented after reading the first three passages. Hotaru wasn't smiling, but she wasn't frowning either. Mechanically she looked to her left side deciding what needed to be done.

"I wasn't expecting it to be better than last years. Now that I have a guarantee about winning I don't have a problem entering." The girl smirked suddenly leaving the other four children to only imagine what she was thinking about.

"Weren't you against this whole idea Imai?" Ruka asked suddenly. He wasn't that opposed to the idea but he had a bad feeling from it just the same. He was concerned about the outcome of what would happen now since there were people surrounding them from all around.

"I was… but then again a summer's worth of watermelon easily overcomes the overall bad situation." The greedy Hotaru Imai was silently laughing to herself about free food for the summer while the boys were flabbergasted. Surely that wasn't the _only reason _for her to not enter that contest right?

"Well you two can do whatever the hell you want, but that doesn't mean you can drag us all into it. Aoi, Ruka we're leaving." Natsume pushed Mikan away as he stood up. The aggravation was clearly evident on his facial expressions as he looked for the exit. While Ruka followed hesitantly Aoi stayed behind with the two girls. She was still holding on to the sheet music and was pouting.

"But Natsume… I want to do it with them… it looks like fun." She complained while the crimson eyed boy twitched.

"Your puppy dog eye trick won't work on me Aoi, get up." He walked over to her to pull her up from her spot but she immediately grabbed onto Mikan's arm.

"No! I want to stay big brother!" At this moment Natsume tugged hard on his sister's arm which in turn dragged Mikan up with her too, and with the unexpected weight added in all three of them toppled over onto the floor. Natsume was peeved underneath the two girls while Aoi and Mikan were sprawled out on top of him.

"Get. Off." He uttered and Mikan scrambled away with Aoi in tow.

"Sorry!" Aoi apologized but was still cowering behind Mikan's side. The eight year old with the pigtails sensed that something was about to explode, and it wasn't one of Hotaru's inventions.

The boy rose up from the carpet with a horrible scowl on his face but he didn't do anything. He was just holding his head as if preventing some headache from forming. Ruka came over to where Natsume stood but the irritation was rolling off the raven haired lad like forty foot waves from the sea. Finally he snapped his head back up, meandered his way to Mikan and evilly glared at her. Twenty seconds later he turned on the balls of his feet to leave the room.

"Ah! Natsume!" Ruka called out following the boy. Mikan and Aoi were silent throughout the entire exchange, but Mikan (even without telepathy) could tell what the boy was saying to her.

'_You are dead if anything happens.'_ Yup, that pretty much summed up how he felt about Mikan at the moment, and the poor nine year old was caught right in between the siblings fight.

"Wait." Hotaru called after them. Somehow the bowl of cherries didn't improve the situation, and everyone was left to wonder when did she leave to get the fruit? "Hyuuga, I didn't chalk you for someone to give up on a challenge so easily. Or perhaps you're really just chicken?"

Both boys froze at the entryway, Ruka had turned around to caution the girls from upsetting Natsume even more but it was too late. Somehow the ticking bomb that had been set into motion had exploded and it was far too late for anyone to stop it. Glowering, Natsume turned his attention to the three girls. His attention was on Hotaru but he darted between Mikan and Aoi just the same.

Hotaru just continued on as if nothing fazed her. "It would make sense since you don't want to participate in our band… and despite your opinions Aoi wants to work with us too. Surely that would only hinder you on watching her and since you wouldn't be a contestant there would be no way for you to come backstage without being kicked out."

Adding icing to the cake Hotaru left her last comment in the air for everyone to digest. "Wouldn't it annoy you even more if those _dogs _took your sister without you there to protect her…? But since it's your decision you shouldn't come crying to me about what may happen." The boy narrowed his eyes before turning his head to the side. He whispered something to Ruka before glaring back at the girls.

"…Tch. You're all idiots for wanting to do something childish. If we all get captured by those _dogs, _you better not come crying to me then either." He was speaking to Mikan mostly, but it was to everyone just the same. Ruka heaved a relieving sigh of breath but instantly tensed up when Hotaru smirked.

"Of course. Now, out of the two of you who can actually sing a tune?"

Ruka sweat dropped at this and raised his hands up to defend himself from anymore verbal onslaught that was about to happen.

"Err… surely you don't need us singing do you Imai?" He questioned, "Can't Natsume and I work backstage or play an instrument or something?" He had a terrible feeling about what was going to happen, and this time it wasn't about the academy.

The smirk never disappeared from her face and both the boys (Natsume was just irritated for falling into Imai's verbal trap) were left speechless. Aoi was happy despite her brother's lack of interest in the contest, and clung to Mikan's arm.

"Don't worry Ru-chan! I'm sure we'll all figure out what we'll be doing soon!" Aoi cheered but no one replied back with as much cheeriness as she had.

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Unlike the previous year where Mikan and Hotaru had three months to prepare, the five of them only had about three weeks to pull something together. It was hard at first; Natsume and Mikan were at each others throat, while Ruka was learning how to play a guitar. Aoi had a little bit of knowledge of the keyboard thanks to her Father, but Natsume had no musical inclination in him whatsoever for instruments. What shocked everyone the most was Ruka's inability to hit a single note without killing someone's ear though.

Mikan had thought that maybe he was just nervous but put under different circumstances (one in which Hotaru influenced upon the poor blonde boy), they really did find out he couldn't sing or dance. He could do a chorus line with the animals but that was all that he could muster without going red in the face or failing miserably. Natsume could sing but everyone could tell that he was not going to put forth the effort.

In the end the singing parts all fell upon Mikan, and this time it wouldn't be a duet. Hotaru had put up her cape on that little road show and she wasn't going to put it on anytime soon. Luckily Mikan had convinced her friend to at least do some back-up vocals and actually perform the dances. Whether she'd do them with emotion though was entirely up to her. They were hoping with their good looks they'd score pretty well in the contest rather than with their talents.

"Alright!" Aoi plugged in her keyboard testing the sound. Hotaru was adjusting the board in back to be sure the band members (A.K.A. Ruka and Aoi) wouldn't blow out something and potentially ruin everything.

"I think I got it fluidly together on the keyboard now, Ruka why don't you accompany me in song?" She seeped her black hair back behind her ears with a hair fastener before taking her spot in front of the keyboard. Her fingers were itching over the keyboard with an intensity that no one had noticed before. The bunny that was with Ruka the majority of the time was resting on his right shoulder while he nervously stared down at the ground.

"Err… I can't guarantee anything Aoi. Remember I'm only a beginner." Mikan wiped the sweat from her forehead before anyone could see it. She supposed he was saying that last part for Hotaru to hear. The last week she had been railing on the poor boy to not mess up or he'd be suffering the consequences of their loss… and Mikan didn't want to see any consequences that Hotaru Imai may be able to pull out. Especially since her friend had a tendency to be a bit cruel.

"Just remember what Dad was saying," Natsume pulled the manga from his face; his feet were propped up on the table where he was seating. "Relax and breathe, let the music seep through your fingers. If little miss sunshine over here can do the keyboard I'm sure you'd do fine on the guitar."

Hotaru stopped what she was doing and decided to pull up her oval goggles from her face. There was a slight tan line from how tight it was suctioned around her face but everyone kept the comments to themselves. She just put a thumb up indicating for the two to start.

"I'm glad that your mom lent us your garage Hotaru." Mikan was wiping her hands with a piece of cloth on the workbench and her best friend just nodded to her. Natsume had taken the opportunity to straighten up in his seat.

"Mom just wanted to be sure that we didn't have any unwanted _guests _swarming around us at the common grounds. Plus she wanted a sneak peak at what we're planning." The girl informed before pulling her goggles over her eyes. "Go take a seat while I work on the technical stuff. I won't be able to listen to the two, but tell me if they suck."

The brunette just chuckled at that before patting Hotaru on her shoulder. "Alright, I'm gonna join Natsume then." Turning on her heel, Mikan skipped her way over to the boy. He was still reading but at least he wasn't using the table as his foot stool.

Jumping up onto the table she looked up at the little makeshift stage Ruka and Aoi were sitting on before looking down at the boy next to her. He didn't acknowledge her presence but she knew that he felt she was there. Heck, she was practically leaning over his lap looking at his book.

"Whatcha reading?" Mikan asked peering at the contents. It appeared to be some manga with ninja's running around with those shuriken.

"None of your business." He curtly reacted by shutting it closed a second later. They were still like a snake and mongoose it seemed.

A sharp shrill noise went over the speakers that caught both of the kid's attention to the stage. Aoi was holding her ears while Ruka was wincing. His bunny had decided it was better off offstage where the speakers weren't next to its ears.

Bounding its way down the stage, it jumped blithely onto the table next to the brunette whose hair was still up in the two pigtails and cuddled in her lap. "Hey bunny-boo, did that hurt your ears?" Mikan cooed while rubbing his down. Ruka mouthed a thank you before strumming the strings another time. This time there wasn't any back feed from the microphones.

"You guys suck." Natsume teased; there was a smirk on his face while he said this. "I haven't heard a single good chord from you guys yet."

"Natsume!" Mikan scolded, while Ruka and Aoi laughed.

"We haven't even started yet!" Aoi complained with a giggle.

"That makes two of us mate," Ruka smiled back before strumming the guitar a third time. Looking to Aoi Ruka gave a whimsical smile to the girl. An idea had formulated into his mind and he instantly played the first three notes.

"How about we shut him up with an awesome song," Three chords echoed into the air before Aoi realized what song he was playing. Shaking her head she followed the tempo and rhythm with the same chords as the guitar on her keyboard. After the first verse had gone by Mikan instantly knew what song they were playing and decided to cheer for the both while Natsume just shook his head.

"Oh yes, like _Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star _will prove that you're amazing." Natsume chuckled at what the two were doing but played along. He bobbed his head slightly and Mikan decided to add in vocals. All four played around for a little while and when Ruka and Aoi keyed the last notes in sync clapping could be heard near the open garage door.

Turning to the direction of the clapping the children noticed Narumi dressed up in his normal frilly outfit… except this one was a bit outrageous. Instead of the white and black colors, it was bright purple with dark blue jean bell bottoms. What was worse was the pirate hat he was courting around as a hat.

"Afternoon kiddies! Ah! I see you all are putting the last minute arrangements on your band contest. I was in the neighborhood when I heard you guys, and like a curious cat I followed the noise. It sounds good so far though!" The older gentleman entered the strangely large garage before taking a look at each of the instruments.

"Did you make all of this Imai?" Unaware of the glares the teacher was getting from Natsume and Ruka, he continued to poke into things such as the sound and finally reached the makeshift stage. He took a swift glance around to notice that each thing had an animal theme to it.

"I didn't know you were interested in animals Imai, it's inspiring to see such great talent… Ah, if only you would come to the academy…" This last part was whispered but everyone could still hear him speaking.

"Ah, Narumi-sensei!" The brunette jumped down from the table easily maneuvering the bunny from her lap into her arms and ran over to the man. She was all smiles as she approached him, "This isn't what we're performing at the contest, but you're more than welcome to drop on by! It'd be cool to have you listen to what we all created."

The girl had a little bounce in her step while she pointed at what was what for the teacher. Natsume, watching from afar, scoffed at the pair and made his way to the stage.

"We should go over the song once and call it a day. We have to see if you two can play in sync with each other before tomorrow comes." He picked up a lone microphone from the floor and yelled over the two bickering _fools _to Hotaru who was ignoring the world.

"Oi Imai, turn on this mike. We're checking the quality and scramming." A small pop was heard a second later and Natsume did a little test on the cordless mike. He snapped his fingers and while Mikan and Narumi were still in their _Lala land, _and finally when the boy couldn't stand it he yelled over the mike causing everyone (minus Hotaru) to flinch.

"_Polka Dots, Strawberry fields, Pandas, stripes, idiot, moron, ugly pigtails, stupid." _Mikan had snapped out of her reverie and Narumi was speechless. Where had the names come from, and why was Natsume shouting at Mikan? The thought processed through the teacher's mind while Mikan flew into a rage.

Running onstage she snatched the mike from the raven boy's hand and he just shrugged. He pulled another mike from the back and turned it on. "I have a name you know! Nasty Fox!"

Annoyed he flicked his hand up and her skirt flew up in the motion. "Oh that's right, today is _rainbows of joy." _Narumi brought a hand over his eyes wondering whether he should reprimand the boy or not, but thought it best to just let it go. Since he wasn't his student yet he didn't need to try mediating the situation.

Besides, he thought Mikan's act of aggression was a way to resolve it. She had grabbed his collar and was wringing it in her clenched fist but he was just staring at her with his icy crimson orbs. Nothing scared that boy, well, maybe Persona did but that was something anyone would be afraid of.

He didn't miss the flush of red on Ruka's face, or the shocked expression on Aoi's face, or the swift glance from Hotaru who pretended to be working. All those children seemed to gravitate around whatever had happened to the girl, and somehow it worked out for them well. Narumi had at first thought that the children were at odds with themselves, but they possibly may have grown to like each other just a little bit. Maybe they were even friends. Who knew what was running through their minds though, since they were around the ages of eight and nine after all.

"Alright children!" Narumi clapped gathering everyone's attention. "Can you guys give me a little preview?" He'd hope that it would stop Mikan's rampage long enough to forget what had happened to her. She was a bit disheveled but she returned to her bubbly self the instant Narumi took a seat in front of the stage. Hotaru mechanically removed herself from her spot with her own mike in hand.

"Alright, 1. 2. 1, 2, 3 go!" Mikan counted and they tried their song for the first time.

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**T.K.:** Heya everyone! How are you all doing? Hope you enjoyed this installment! (Please review? Please?) Tell me what you think!

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**Completed: October 24th, 2010; 3:37 p.m.**


	7. Teamwork

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Gakuen Alice. They belong to the rightful owner: Tachibana Higuchi. Thank you for your time. The only thing I own is the verses from below. It was inspired from Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The idea behind it isn't mine, but some of the verses are. :D Thank you for your time.

**Summary:** Eight year old Mikan Sakura wanted nothing more than to enjoy her years of elementary school. She was popular, made friends easily, and was happy all the time. How will her life change when Hotaru Imai, a mysterious transfer student, appears into her life?

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"_**Yet we were so young,**_

_**Stupid and blind**_

_**Fate had another thing in mind**_

_**You tore apart, young star.**_

_**I wanted to keep you safe,**_

_**But all I can do for now**_

_**Is this reminder that**_

_**Deep inside**_

_**Despite the pain**_

_**Remember that place**_

_**Where there's nothing to fear."**_

_**-Mikan**_

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**Chapter 7:**

**Teamwork**

"Well… that was…" Narumi said, searching for the right words. He was scratching his head while he bit the bottom of his lip. He didn't know whether or not to comment on how terrible it had sounded or that nothing was in pitch. The keyboard was all over, the guitar was too slow, and Mikan was singing so softly that she couldn't be heard over the chaos. Natsume and Hotaru were monotonously speaking the song which didn't help with what was going on with the song either. It was worse than the somatic ability musicals that he directed, and _that _said something.

"You can say it Naru," Hotaru replied icily. "It sucked."

At that he could only nod his head.

He was trying to think of a way to save them from disgracing themselves any further before the contest, and that was when the idea hit him.

"How about this: why don't I direct you guys!" A bright smile appeared on his face while he tapped his foot on the ground. He was thinking of what he could do to fix the chaos they had. "It may take all night, but you all wanted to participate and win, right?"

Everyone except the boys nodded their heads enthusiastically. Hotaru was big on the prize but with what they had, it would be tough to fix before the next day… unless they had help. "Great! Now let's start off with the keyboard. Aoi, when you're at certain parts you like to speed up, take your time and gradually increase with Ruka on Guitar. You guys were in sync when doing Twinkle, Twinkle so you should be fine if you practice together. Ruka, you just need to be confident." Marking the instruments off of his mental check list Narumi moved to the front of the stage and stared at Natsume and Hotaru. It looked like he was debating something crucial internally but voiced no opinions.

"Since everything's an animal theme…" Narumi pondered with his hand on his chin. He was staring at Natsume with a forwarded look. "Perhaps you two should dress up as animals…" The second it was mentioned Natsume shot it down like a ton of bricks.

"No way. I will shank you before that ever happens."

Hotaru just pulled out one of her new inventions and shoved it straight into Naru's cheek. The cold steel felt solid against his flesh but he stood his ground. Another one of her inventions, the teacher assumed that probably took after an animal inspiration of a deer. Or was it a cow? The hide was brown and furry, and it was in a hoof shape, so perhaps it was a deer.

"We are here to win, not be a part of your fantasies."

Melodramatically the teacher leaned back from the stoic inventor and touched his temple. He seemed disappointed by both of their answers. "Oh, but it'd be so adorable… I mean… it would help accentuate your stage's theme…" Shaking his head, he left that for a lost cause before turning to Mikan.

"Now, Mikan you need to be loud. You're the main star here and you know your stuff. You're so energetic and cute! Play that up!" Mikan perked up at the compliments and the teacher couldn't take it anymore. Picking the girl up he twirled her around as if she was light as a feather and they both dropped back into their _lala world_.

All in all Natsume was disgusted, and he was afraid that they'd be suffering through Narumi's insanity the rest of the day until their performance.

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"Natsume," The children were all safely tucked into their sleeping bags within Hotaru's living room except for two. Natsume and Narumi were still up, and both were looking at the other with some scary expressions. "The main reason why I came here was to warn you." The boy had just quirked his eye brow at this comment from the teacher. Why would he bother helping him now? "Your hated nemesis will be here tomorrow at the contest under the principal's orders. I don't know what they have planned, but I'll do what I can to help."

The boy dragged his sleeping bag over to his sister's side, where she was sleeping next to the brunette and inventor. Ruka was sleeping on the other side with an extra spot for Natsume to squeeze in. Setting his things down, the boy nodded his head.

"…Hn. Warning received, but that doesn't mean we want your help. Mind your own business." Stifling a yawn the boy slipped into his sleeping bag and faced away from the teacher. The alarm was set to go off in three to four hours and the children needed as much sleep as they could. It was a big day for them tomorrow.

"If only I could Natsume. If only I could."

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Before the contest Narumi had made some last minute costumes for the kids (Hotaru and Natsume were still wondering how Naru got their measurements) and had them put it on just before they would go on. Mikan, the first of the group, jumped out with enthusiasm but her costume was still incomplete.

Standing before the blonde haired male, Mikan was dressed like a pop star. She wore a knee-length white dress that slightly puffed at the ends with ribbon sleeves decorated down her arms (though they were messily done), black leggings resided underneath the dress, and her shoes were small white ballet slippers. They didn't wind up like her sleeves but the little bows resting at the ankle resembled it. She didn't know where to place her little Lolita hat since her hair was up into two pigtails, but once Narumi ascertained what needed to be fixed, it was complete.

The man was kneeling next to the girl tugging out her hair ribbons and the girl immediately flushed red. "Ah! Sensei, do I have to wear my hair down?" Mikan picked up a fallen piece of her auburn hair before playing with it. Apparently this was the first time she'd be wearing her hair down. The older man just chuckled while combing through the silk threads.

"If you want to wear the hat then yes, Oh wow!" Mikan gasped out when Narumi stopped fiddling with her hair and she felt completely exposed. What was he gasping at? What did he do?

"You look so adorable Mikan! This image is perfect for you!" Shifting a hand into his back pocket he pulled out a similar white ribbon to her sleeves except this one had a little badge on the front. Then delicately he wrapped the small ribbon around the girl's neck and tried it into a cute bow. The badge on front was a huge star with a circle around it.

"There, give a little twirl for Narumi hmm?" The girl did as he asked and the teacher nodded his head in approval. One costume down, now he only needed to look over four more.

The next two came out together; Hotaru was followed closely after by Aoi whom was nervously playing with the bottom of her costume. "You two look adorable as well! I'm glad I shipped the costumes in!" Narumi admitted the girls before shifting all of his attention to Hotaru.

She was wearing a black style version of Mikan's dress, except hers wasn't decorated with ribbons. Hers was just a simple puffy black dress with no sleeves. The top was similar to that of a halter, and resting on her left wrist was a teal and black arm warmer. The dress reached her knees and the leggings were that teal color just like her arm warmer. On top of her head was a Lolita hat with a maroon ribbon wrapped around the stem with a bright yellow star with the circle.

It was another badge just like Mikan's except instead of it being on the neck, it would be on her head. Hotaru's shoes were small black boots that reached just below her ankle.

"Hotaru, could you twirl for me?" Narumi asked politely but the girl two stepped back and forth, intentionally not spinning the way the teacher wanted. "Well, it looks cute either way… Aoi!" He clapped his hands with an exuberant motion. "Since these two are done let me see yours."

The girl in question walked slowly over to him and Mikan attempted to whistle. Though no air blew out the way Mikan wanted it to so she clapped her hands to show the girl that she was indeed cute. Standing before them was Aoi dressed up in a Lolita style dress. Her hair was curled and suspended down the back of her head like little waterfalls. It wasn't the same umbrella puff type like Mikan's and Hotaru's but it had that baggy skirt look.

A white belt rested unevenly on her waist and on her arms were small black ruffles covering half of her hand and wrist. On the top of her head laid a hair ornament with the same star badge as Mikan and Hotaru. On her legs were holey pantyhose that gave her a punk rocker type of look, and the small black boots helped prove that point even more.

"Wow! You look like a miniature Kaoru in that!" Narumi praised looking at all different types of angles. He prattled on as the girls listened to his story. "This used to be your mother's outfit back in middle school, but I modified it to fit you. I'm sure she's complimenting you wherever she is!"

The girl brightened up at the mention of her mother. "Did you go to school with mommy then Narumi-sensei?"

The teacher nodded his head, "Yes, though I was a couple years below her. She was a good friend of a friend of mine." The atmosphere around the teacher darkened a bit but he jumped topics. "Kaoru was always the outgoing type… though now that I think about it she was a trouble maker like Natsume."

Taking Aoi's hand he twirled her himself but he was suddenly knocked off balance. Dust blew up from the boxes that he had been forced to bump into, on the other hand luckily, Aoi wasn't crushed. Narumi was the only one to have fallen, and the main perpetrator sauntered his way over to his little sister. "Who said you could touch my sister you pedophile?"

Ruka was following close behind the raven-haired boy while keeping his distance.

"Natsume!" Mikan yelled at the him before going over to the fallen teacher. She was going to offer the teacher a hand, though he managed to get on his feet before she could. When Narumi was up on his feet, he began wiping the dust that accumulated on his attire off. Somehow he never lost the smile on his face. Mikan, was far from pleased, and she stormed straight over to Natsume with a defiant look of her own. "Do you enjoy other people's suffering? Are you alright Narumi-sensei?"

The teacher chuckled at the two as they continued to bicker. They were still lively even with all the stress of performing coming upon them? Narumi gave them points for being energetic, and pulled out a notepad. He needed to take note of their behaviors for now and ascertain a way for them to peacebly enter the academy. The blonde teacher had a terrible feeling about the impeding future, and Persona's warning always came back to haunt him. Once he was done writing his little bullet points, he looked evenly at the two boys.

Natsume definitely looked the part he was playing; a white button up shirt with a jagged collar. A maroon ribbon was messily tied into a knot to keep the shirt together. All of his buttons except for the last three were buttoned, and underneath there was a black undershirt. He was wearing black shorts that had chains hanging down from the belt holders, with black boots reaching his mid calf. But despite the rough look, he still looked as dashing as ever. The star badge hung unevenly on his jagged collar but matched nonetheless.

Ruka looked the same, except for a couple main things were different. He had no chains hanging down either side of his shorts and instead of the punker look, he wore the striped maroon and black socks and arm warmers. His shirt was buttoned all the way down, and his maroon ribbon tied around the collar was neatly tied into a bow. He also had a hat similar to the girls except this one wasn't a small Lolita hat. It was a full size top hat, but it was too big for him to wear properly.

The other thing that was different about this boy was that his bunny was dressed similarly to him with a cute ribbon around its neck and a cute top hat on top of its head. At least his bunny's hat fit the bunny properly.

Narumi gave the two boys a stern look, and after that awful silence the teacher reached over to Ruka and took off his hat. Then he placed it on to Natsume's head with a smile. "There, now that doesn't look as weird. Ruka, where's your badge at?" The teacher asked and Ruka pulled it out of his pocket.

"I didn't know where to put it." The boy murmured and Narumi took the badge from him.

"Hmm… how about you put it here?" He tapped the opposite side of the boy's collar and Ruka put it on. "Excellent!" The teacher cooed to the children. It seemed to everyone that he was more excited than they were at the moment. "Why don't you all get together there and I'll take your guys' picture! This is too cute to pass up!"

Natsume felt his patience decreasing with each second that ticked on. He was infuriated at the man for forcing costumes on that, and now he was calling them cute? This was not going to end well, and it wasn't going to end well for him (AKA Naru).Everyone shifted nervously around each other, somehow afraid that the costumes would get damaged if it touched something it shouldn't but when all five stood side by side Narumi shook his head.

"No, no, we need some layers here. You all can't just stand in a line like that… Hotaru can you get closer to Ruka? Yes like that, now Ruka quit squirming. Good, Aoi could you bring that little chair over? Yes, put it in the middle and sit there. Mikan, Natsume do the same thing that Ruka and Hotaru are please… Mikan don't give me that look." Narumi reprimanded every now and then. Somehow he had turned into a photographer in less than ten seconds.

"Ouch!" Mikan yelped out, her foot was underneath Natsume's who had purposely moved it there. "That hurt you jerk!"

"Whoops?" The raven haired boy shrugged before Narumi coughed.

"Ruka you have to get closer to Hotaru… can't you _pretend _to like her? No, no, here." The teacher walked over to the two and positioned the boy's left hand around Hotaru's waist and moved the inventor's right hand to hold Ruka's extended right hand right in between the two of them. "Perfect! Now stay still."

"You move your hand any lower Nogi and heads will roll." Hotaru warned with a soft whisper. Ruka mentally squirmed from the tone.

"I wouldn't dream of it Imai." He whimpered and his bunny agreed with him on his shoulder.

Narumi then stood in front of Mikan and Natsume before directing them to do the same thing the other pair were doing. Except Natsume wrapped his arm around her arm and wound it around her causing Mikan to twist pain seared through her shoulder blades as he applied pressure into the hold. "Ouch! Ouch, ouch, ouchouchouch! Let go you jerk!" Aoi was chuckling at the dysfunctional pair and the boy dropped his hands freeing the girl from her prison.

"Alright, now Natsume hold Mikan's waist like Ruka is doing… Er… that's not her waist Natsume that's her lower hip." Mikan was squirming but Natsume also grabbed her hand in a similar way to Ruka's/Hotaru's group was doing. This had only prevented Mikan from escaping any further than she could.

"You pervert! Now I'll never be able to marry!" She cried out while Natsume exhaled in annoyance.

"Don't worry Mikan!" Narumi made a comment while stepping away from the picture perfect photo shot. "When you're older things like that will be fun!"

"Gag." Hotaru responded and Ruka chuckled. Aoi joined in while Mikan fidgeted some more. Natsume having been more annoyed than usual, started to blow air into Mikan's exposed neck causing little goose bumps to appear on her skin.

"Stop it!" Mikan squirmed in agony. Surely one picture wouldn't be the death of her… right?

"Just hurry with the picture Naru before I burn you, we have two minutes before we have to do a sound check." Natsume bluntly told the man and Narumi stared at the clock.

"You're right, alright this'll have to do; Aoi raise your head a bit… perfect. Mikan stop crying, Natsume won't do anything to you. Smile now," He positioned the camera up and put his finger on top of the trigger button. "Everyone say Z!"

"Z?"

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

The contest went by without any hitches. Many groups of children presented their pieces with the elegance and grace of a three year olds drawing effort. Even though some of it wasn't that good to the ears they were still cute with the choreography and costumes.

Same as last year the gangs group was last to perform and they performed a mix of twinkle, twinkle and the song Mikan composed: Safe. It was Narumi's idea to mix them since the children did well messing around with it, and all Mikan, Natsume, and Hotaru had to do with the lyrics was to replace keywords here and add a different rhythm there.

The choreography was done by Aoi and Mikan, which was pretty much simple. Some hand twisting here, two steps to the left there. Since they only had three weeks they kept everything simple, straight, and easy to learn. Once everything was learned the children began adding little things here and little tidbits of acrobats there. Mikan wanted to pull off the routine she did last year but the idea was ignored.

Narumi finally suggested that Natsume should try to do a back flip over an object, and Hotaru came up with an invention that caused smoke to come out from the bottom of the floor. The invention would start up just as soon as Natsume landed from his little trick. Aoi and Ruka suggested that they may be able to buy them time for the initial set up, which Narumi allowed with limitations.

"Alright Aoi, Ruka remember the extra interlude you two added to give those two time to set up. Mikan, Natsume's going to help you perform that front flip and after that he's just going to jump backwards into his own routine. Hotaru, is the invention set where you want it?" The teacher was going through his little notebook checking off his list of things needing done while the children were preparing for their act. The curtains were still closed but they could hear the murmuring of the audience beyond.

"Yes, the invention is securely set where he's going to land. Mikan," Hotaru called over to the antsy girl. "Relax; you've gone over this a billion times already in the last two days." The girls shared a little moment to themselves before Natsume appeared to crush Mikan's head under his arm.

"We're starting in thirty seconds."

Wriggling her arms up and down, Mikan shook herself out of the grappling hold and dragged her two friends to the front of the stage. The M.C. was handing out their microphones, but like before they didn't help with the previous ten minute set up. Hotaru, Ruka, Aoi, and Mikan worked to prepare the stage while Natsume was chilling in the back reading his manga.

"We now have two of our previous champions back to perform again, and with them are three new members. Give a warm welcome to Mikan Sakura, Hotaru Imai, Ruka Nogi, Aoi Hyuuga, and Natsume Hyuuga presenting Safe!" The M.C. repeated the information again, and like the previous year Mikan could hear her grandfather in the crowd shouting all of their names with energy. Despite how old he was, he was still roaring like he was twenty.

When the lights dimmed, the curtains began to open and Mikan zoomed in on the crowd. Many different people were there that weren't even a part of their town, and most of them had black suits on. Some were elders with stern expressions while others were young with smiles galore. Every now and then you'd see the familiar face of a couple people, but they were easily overcome by the new people.

"Tch…" Mikan looked over her right shoulder to see Natsume clenching his fist around his microphone. Aoi was frozen at the keyboard with a worried expression and Ruka was shocked. In fact he just looked like someone had just gone and ran him over with an eighteen wheeler.

"Mo…ther…?" Ruka wordlessly gaped and Hotaru grinned.

Momentarily the crowd silenced themselves leaving the eight year olds in an eerie quiet. It wasn't like they weren't prepared to sing now, but somehow something had killed everyone's mental capabilities to perform at that instant. Glancing around, Mikan bit the bottom of her lip before inhaling deeply.

Leaving her first position everyone stared madly at her as if she had a million heads but when she appeared besides Aoi she quickly tapped the first three to four notes of twinkle (having already memorized the keys thanks to constantly staring when Aoi played), and she and Aoi began playing in four different octaves. Mikan covered the lower two while Aoi was playing the two higher ones.

Suddenly guitar chords mixed into the music and the two girls look up at Ruka who was smiling at them.

"Sorry, and thanks for the wake up." Ruka mouthed to the girls, and Mikan giggled. Leaving Aoi's side Mikan moved to the front next to Hotaru and started with a couple of the first dance moves.

Shortly after Hotaru joined in with a little shake of the head, and then Mikan twirled around to face Natsume. He was staring at the two of them with a strange expression on his face, but once Mikan had grabbed his hand to initiate the dance he bravely twirled the girl up to the front of the stage.

It was only then did Mikan realize that the lyrics were about to come up. _Oh crap!_

Her mind was still blank except for "keep the energy up." Nothing about the lyrics or the words popped up within her mind, and when it was time to sing she couldn't sing. The words just wouldn't come.

_**Twinkle Twinkle, You're Safe Star**_

_**Do not fear**_

_**You're safe here**_

_**I would do anything**_

_**To keep you safe dear**_

The words came from Natsume who was still looking at Mikan. He was giving her that look that said: "You better start singing or I'm just going to push you off the stage," and she picked up where he had left off. Hotaru was singing softly behind the two of them, but she was focusing more on directing the two behind her with her timed motions.

It was Narumi's idea to have Hotaru direct the tempo with her dance while Natsume and Mikan kept the attention on them.

_**Continue Believing**_

_**Rely on that feeling**_

_**Keep the good **_

_**Forget the bad **_

_**And like a diamond in the sky**_

_**Twinkle, Twinkle forever on**_

_**Tides of Fate may **_

_**Pull you apart**_

_**But don't let go**_

_**Keep holding on**_

_**You're so bright, **_

_**You're so high**_

_**Don't forget you're shining, star**_

_**Recall the wish you hold close now**_

It was getting close to the finale of the song then, Natsume moved behind Mikan to help her maneuver her front flip and just as planned she miraculously landed without so much as a scratch. Natsume had kept her steady for the immediate jump and once she had regained her footing he grabbed his hat from the top of his head and tossed it to the audience. Some of the girls lunged for the thrown piece.

"Natsume-kun!"

"Ruka-kun!"

"WE LOVE YOU!" The whole audience of girls squealed even louder than what the group had anticipated. Mikan was laughing nervously internally before pulling out a couple pieces of candy from her pocket. She still had some time to give some of it to the children. It would also divert the attention from Natsume while he positioned himself to perform his back handed double jump. Mikan leaned down to hand some of her hard candy to some of the small children, and a couple guys from the audience shouted out her name. She was mildly surprised by the action, so she smiled to them with a short wave.

She felt an odd sensation of heat near her right shoulder at that moment. _'Strange,'_ she thought before coming face to face with a hovering fire light. Two of them were hovering closely to her face, but the audience didn't see it as a threat. It did look like a cool afterglow from performing a front flip, but she knew that wasn't the intention of this fire. Nervously she looked over her shoulder to see crimson eyes glaring at her. "ehehe..." She whimpered slightly before turning back to the audience.

The fire died away instantly when Mikan put the microphone to her lips to sing again. Surprisingly Ruka and Aoi slowed down the tempo to give the two of them enough time to finish what they were doing.

_**You felt the warmth**_

_**Under that gaze**_

_**Of loving support**_

_**And like always**_

_**I'll keep you safe**_

_**Safe from your enemies, **_

_**Safe from their tricks, **_

_**Safe from that strange thing we call fate,**_

_**But how were we supposed to know?**_

Fireballs exploded on stage as the line echoed over the speakers. Mikan was surrounded by smoke but she had known it was going to happen. The climax of the song was there and like last year's they were going to end this with a huge bang.

_**How were we supposed to know**_

_**Of this lives twisted game?**_

_**It hurts us now,**_

_**You're burning out**_

_**I want to keep you safe,**_

_**Up above the world so high**_

_**Keep on shining **_

_**Don't be shy.**_

_**Yet we were so young,**_

_**Stupid and blind**_

_**Fate had another thing in mind.**_

_**You tore apart, young star**_

_**I wanted to keep you safe,**_

_**But all I can do for now**_

_**Is this reminder that**_

_**Deep inside**_

_**Despite the pain**_

_**Remember that place **_

_**Where there's nothing to fear.**_

Ruka and Aoi had placed the extra interlude of music here. The riffs from the guitar and the pounding of the keys made Mikan think of the symbolism behind the song. The beginning, the suffering star, the way life pulls it along…

The smoke began to clear off the stage as Natsume performed his back flip with no hands. He soared back, and Mikan had wondered if he had wings for a second. The way he nimbly did the trick left her completely speechless. How could something so normal be so amazing the next; and also, how could he be so gifted and such a mean kid? Mikan would never understand it.

Hotaru's machine activated as soon as Natsume touched the ground, and a hazy purple mist appeared in the back next to Aoi and Ruka. The lights changed and the color from its bright yellow dimmed to a light bluish color hinting at a subtle difference within the song. The melody with had been upbeat had began to slow down into a small ballad, and then turned straight into the regular Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with only the key board.

Hotaru had joined Mikan up front while Natsume stayed center stage. He was staring up at the sky leaving the audience to wonder if he was supposed to do that. The mike was at his lips and in sync with the music Aoi, Ruka, Mikan, Hotaru and Natsume sang the last three lyrics together. The keyboard had continued playing but once they started singing only one note suspended in the air showing that the accompaniment had ended.

_**Hold it close**_

_**Keep it near**_

_**Don't forget that feeling **_

_**Calling you there**_

_**Relax your mind**_

_**Close your eyes**_

_**I'll keep trying as always**_

_**To keep you safe.**_

_**So twinkle on,**_

_**Forever star**_

_**You will brighten up that dark, lone realm**_

_**Twinkle, twinkle you're safe star.**_

All of them stopped suddenly, an eerie quiet unfolded over the crowd. The dramatic pause that Narumi had wanted was easily placed at the end where no one would have expected it to be. Grabbing Hotaru's extended hand Mikan looked back at the group with a sad smile. They all nodded back to her as she completed the rest by herself.

_**I'll keep you safe**_

_**By singing you this sweet lullaby**_

_**On and On, **_

'_**til the end of time.**_

_**Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star**_

_**I'll keep you safe**_

_**I'll keep… you… safe…**_

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

**T.K.:** Many thanks to the new reviews! I'm glad that you liked them! =D

**KaitoKid**: Why thank you! =D I'll be sure to update soon. This series will be ending soon, so I hope you stay in tune for that.

**NatsumeLover**: Persona is a bit creepy, I do agree. =D Unfortunately he's not in this chapter, but he'll be making his appearance shortly! Hope you keep reading!

To my other readers: Thank you for reading, I hope to continue writing stories that appeal to your interests!

Without further ado: Please review! THANK YOU! =D (Pretty please?) Also... Happy Belated Halloween!

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**Completed: October 27th, 2010; 7:16 a.m.**


	8. Trouble Over The Horizon

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Gakuen Alice. They belong to the rightful owner: Tachibana Higuchi. Thank you for your time.

**Summary:** Eight year old Mikan Sakura wanted nothing more than to enjoy her years of elementary school. She was popular, made friends easily, and was happy all the time. How will her life change when Hotaru Imai, a mysterious transfer student, appears into her life?

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"_**Yeah… Natsume was always the trouble maker in the family but I love him for it…"**_

_**-Aoi**_

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**Chapter Eight:**

**Trouble Over The Horizon**

"I had gotten a call from Natsume's Dad and I just had to come see you all perform! I'm so glad that I did too! Ruka darling, you're adorable in that outfit!" A strange woman was smothering Ruka in her arms just as the children left the stage. The mayor had presented the grand prize to another group since Mikan's song wasn't an "original" but they did receive a special award for such an amazing show.

Natsume and Aoi were talking with their dad and Mikan witnessed something she had never seen happen before. "OH MY GOSH! Natsume you just smiled!" The girl called him out and the boy just smacked her in response.

"I'm not a robot Polka dots." The boy stuffed his hand into his pockets and gave a fleeting look all around the vicinity. It looked to the girl that he was looking for someone, but at the same time avoiding someone.

"It was just surprising is all," Mikan sheepishly said before pointing to Ruka and the strange woman. "Who's that with Ruka?"

"His mother." Hotaru appeared to Mikan's right with a certificate and a coupon for a month's worth of pudding. Also within her hand was a pen and paper.

"His mom!" The girl exclaimed before looking between the two again. She hadn't taken a closer look, but once she did she could tell that they were related now. "They do look similar to each other! Hey, where are you going Hotaru?" Ignoring Mikan, the inventor went straight to the loving mother. Ruka's eyes widened in alarm especially at Hotaru's smile, and yet the mother was as sweet to the girl as she was to her son. "I wish my son had more girlfriends like you!" Mikan could hear from his mother.

Deciding it best to avoid that conversation the girl turned her attention to the bored boy who was staring at the affectionate mother of Ruka. He wasn't really interested in the festivities around him, and it looked like he was on edge. Even on stage he was stiff in the shoulders, but somehow still looked as stoic as always.

"What?"

"Er…" Mikan fiddled with her hair before finding the ground entertaining. Her face was beet red but she was blaming that on her adrenaline pulsing through her blood steam. Everything that had happened that night was still replaying in her head with the smallest refraction here or there. She had to admit that this night was a night no one would forget. At least for a while. "Did you have fun tonight? I know you were kind of forced into it because of your sister, but did you really have fun?" It wasn't easy to tell the boy's emotions just because he was so mysterious, but she figured she had nothing to lose with asking directly.

Natsume stared away avoiding her questiong gaze. For someone as ditsy and idiotic as she was, he was surprised that she was intuitive to things that had happened around her. He wondered what he should say as a response, and yet silence seemed the most fitting. The silence lapsed into more seconds, and the more seconds went by as the girl stared intensively at the boy. Finally he made a move, shocking both the girl and himself. Flicking his finger into her forehead softly, he gave a soft smirk to the girl before leaving. He had mouthed something but Mikan couldn't catch it, and like that it was forgotten in the moment.

"Thanks."

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

Cleaning up was always the hardest part of that night. Everyone was leaving and only the parents of those who participated remained. Most kids had only simple contraptions such as tables or chairs that they brought with them, but Hotaru tended to bring more than the normal person would. When Aoi was walking up the stage to retrieve the keyboard she noticed a bright red gem glittering on the indented power button. If Aoi remembered correctly she had turned the electronic off right after they left the stage, but maybe she just forgot about it? Or, she reasoned, a child may have came onstage and fiddled with the keyboard hitting a couple notes.

"This is… like Natsume's eye color…" She admired the little stone, oblivious to the fact that someone was watching her from afar.

"Whatcha looking at Aoi?" Mikan appeared right besides the young raven haired girl with a tilted head. Unlike Aoi, Ruka and Hotaru; Natsume and Mikan were still in their costumes because they didn't have the time to change. Hotaru was a slave driver when it came to cleaning up, and Mikan was being forced to do everything by herself. Natsume was just being his idle self, picking up things here and forgetting about the important stuff there. Mikan assumed that he was doing that on purpose to irritate the inventor, but it was obviously failing.

"Oh, nothing…" She pocketed the stone in her shorts pocket before grabbing the keyboards center. It was still plugged in and Mikan laughed at her for forgetting to unplug it. Reaching forward the brunette pulled the plug for the girl and let her roam offstage to the loading dock of Hotaru's trailer. Mikan knew that Aoi was a giddy person, almost like herself, but it wasn't all too bad. Her maturity made up for her ditziness. It was then that the brunette began to appreciate her new friends even more. Natsume may have been a jerk 99.9% of the time, but he had his moments. Aoi was just too sweet for words, meaning she was a great influence on the brunette and vise versa, and Ruka was gentle. He was like other boys his age except he wasn't rough. The only time he had acted rough around anyone was only when the academy was mentioned. He was piping mad when they were discussing the transfers earlier that year, the brunette recalled suddenly. Tapping her chin thoughtfully with her index finger, the girl did not notice an approaching figure. They were cutting across the front of the apron straight to her while she was quietly thinking. Cleaning was the last thing on her mind, and suddenly she jumped in fright.

"Good evening." The voice abruptly interrupted Mikan's thoughts. She had quickly glanced up to the person who greeted her with a shocked expression. He was tall, had similarly disheveled black hair (just like Natsume's in a way if he had just gotten out of bed), gaudy jewelry all over his fingers and a huge gem for an earring on his left ear. It was a clear gem, but that wasn't what caught her attention, it was the pearly white masquerade mask that rested evenly on his face covering his nose and eyes from the view of the public. The whole black attire didn't help Mikan's opinion of the man either.

"G-g-good evening." Mikan stuttered to him, unsure of what to say. He just chuckled at her shyness and reached forward to her. She didn't know what he wanted but she remained where she was.

"What's your name?" The man asked, and Mikan responded respectfully fast. Her grandfather had always told her to respect her elders, and this person was no different.

"Mikan Sakura…" His hand was hovering above her head, inches away from her Lolita hat still perched up on her head. She had thought that he was going to pat her on the head, but he was holding his ground. Who was this man and why was he talking to her? She didn't have plenty of time to think clearly on the topic when something in the background shook her from her reverie.

A crashing noise drew the girl's attention to the left, and there was Natsume with a box of discarded things rolling on the floor. Mikan felt a cold shiver run down her arms at how wide Natsume's eyes were staring at them. Normally his eyes were narrowed in suspicion or just blatantly staring at nothing in general... Now, well she didn't know what to think, she had never seen such an expression of… terror cross his features like his was. The shock disappeared just as soon as he started to move, his feet mechanically walked over to the two of them and when he was in hands reach, the boy pulled Mikan back behind him; away from the masked man. She was staring at how square Natsume's shoulders were, and it wasn't a comforting feeling to see.

"What did you do to her?" He icily held Mikan to his back but defiantly glared up at the man.

"Nothing." The man's tone darkened as he reached forward to Natsume's untied ribbon. It was hanging loosely on his collared shirt, and with a swift motion the ribbon was in the man's grasp. To Mikan, it looked like he was interested in the cloth but there was something odd. The ends were starting to blacken, and even fraying off into ash as the man fiddled with it. Soon nothing remained of the ribbon, and the two children stared with wide eyes at the man. "We were just introducing ourselves, isn't that right Mikan Sakura?"

The voice chilled the girl to the bone, and her voice box wasn't operating the way she wanted it to. In response, Natsume just tightened his hold on her wrist.

"When will this game of cat and mouse end Natsume?" The man continued and a smirk appeared on his face. Mikan felt her free hand grip onto the back of Natsume's shirt and her hand was getting clammy underneath Natsume's other hand. There was something about this man that scared her and she knew that she wasn't the only one feeling this way. She didn't miss the fact that his hand was also starting to slightly shake with her own.

"There never was a game of cat and mouse Persona. I'm not going to the academy, and neither are Ruka and Aoi. They're staying here." The boy responded just as coolly. His voice did not shake like Mikan thought it should have; she knew he was scared. Her intuition was ringing bells and alarms that were saying so.

"I beg to differ." The one known as Persona twisted his hand up into the air and straight back down again. The brunette called out Natsume's name in vain when the connection between his backhand and his cheek, but that wasn't going to protect him from any further attacks from this man. The force of the blow was quite powerful forcing Natsume to look towards the side. She was shocked at what had happened but when she attempted to move in front of him, he held her back. Even though he had gotten slapped, he was still trying to protect her. Her hazel orbs widened at the thought. Why would he protect her? The tears fell down without her knowing they were even falling, and Natsume tightened his grasp on her wrist.

"Persona!" Whether it was luck or not, Narumi stumbled on stage with pretty much the same expression as Natsume had earlier when he had discovered the man with Mikan. His purple eyes were wide with shock and upon further inspection he noticed the swelling of the boy's cheek and Mikan's tear-streaked face. It had only taken the teacher two seconds to cut off Persona from the two kids, and quite shockingly, Narumi had slapped Persona. His mask had flew off with a swift motion to the farthest part of the stage. The deft click of the mask landing resounded quite loudly between the four of them.

Persona was looking to the side with a contorted face. The slight swelling from Narumi's slap was slightly turning purple after the first few seconds. Though Persona did not back down. After he had recollected his musings, the Dangerous Abilities teacher scoffed at the slap and smirked. He had known that Narumi was going to slap him back.

"I've come to give you a warning. By the end of this summer you will be shipped to the school whether you want to or not, and I always keep my promises." Mikan kept a close eye on his hand, watching how it moved up to his face to gingerly touch his own cheek. Both of them flinched suddenly when his blazing onyx orbs snapped back to stare intently at them. "Narumi, you should consider yourself lucky that I am a forgiving person. If I had not speculated you hitting me, I would have done something... a lot more unpleasant. Keep that in mind for next time, won't you?" Narumi clenched his fist in anger but said nothing on the matter. Persona gracefully moved with the click of his boot heel upon the stage towards his fallen mask. The three walked him closely as he leaned down to pick up the porcelean mask with ease.

"Things will spiral out of your control before you know it Natsume, and you will rely on the school in order to get out of it. I promise you that much." Mikan snapped her attention to Natsume, who was seething at the spot. She could see the line of perspiration running down the side of his face, and his eyes were wide. Then just as quickly they narrowed and showed no signs of breaking.

"That's never going to happen." He vowed with clarity. Mikan gripped onto the boy and bit the bottom of her own lip. Her cheeks felt sticky with the tears and make-up mixed together.

Persona moved to the edge of the stage, ignoring Natsume's words, where two of Gakuen Alice guards had appeared. They were holding up a rolled up paper tied in a nice ribbon to Persona who accepted it hastily. Pulling the ribbon apart he read its content before smirking. The expression on his face began sending chills down Mikan's spine, but she did not utter a single word.

"Narumi, time is slowly ticking away. The principal will be ecstatic to hear you've done nothing." Chuckling, the man put on his mask but not before turning his attention to the brunette. Something terrible was going to happen soon, the girl began feeling it when Persona gave her his own trademark smirk.

"We'll meet again I'm sure Mikan Sakura."

Just as he had appeared onstage, he had mysteriously disappeared into the crowd of security attendants from the Academy. The only ones that remained on stage now were the technical workers, the parents of the children, Narumi, and the children themselves. The three had not moved from their spots for some time. They were stiff from their recent mysterious meeting with that smirking man, but Narumi pulled himself out of his shock to attend to Natsume. His hand was hovering gently over Natsume's swelled up cheek, but the boy immediately swatted the hand away. He was glaring daggers at the man, and said nothing of thanks to Narumi in return. Nevertheless, Narumi continued his fretting by voicing out his conern.

"Are you two alright?" Narumi asked to the two. He moved his attention to Mikan where he raised his hand to touch her face, but she flinched at contact. She was still a bit shaken up by what had just happened. Natsume saw the exchange and backed himself away. He was putting some distance between the teacher and Mikan, and he remained dutifully in front. He was suspicious again, even if the teacher had helped them right after Persona appeared. Mikan's reaction to Narumi contributed to his decision regarding the teachers at the school as well.

"I don't trust you; I don't trust anyone working with that academy." Natsume scowled and left the stage with the brunette. Natsume never looked back while carting Mikan away, but the brunette chanced a look over her should. Narumi-sensei looked like a complete wreck, his hand was outstretched, hoping to convince them that he wasn't an enemy and his purple eyes were wide with sadness. The concern was oozing from his pores and from that she could tell one thing for sure that night because of it. Something bad was going to happen, and it would revolve solely around Natsume... and it would result in him being transferred to the academy. The brunette didn't like to think about things as grim as that, but somehow she found herself lost in thought wondering what would happen over the next couple of months.

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

"Principal, I have delivered the amplification stone but it wound up in the hands of Aoi Hyuuga. She is not as powerful as Natsume is, but I think it will achieve the results you want." The masked man Persona reported into the built in car phone. He sounded like he had a long night ahead of him still.

"Yes, and just like you suspected Narumi has yet to do anything efficient. So far his attempt at getting the children to come willingly under his own agenda is not efficiently working… that is why I sped up our main course of action a couple months earlier. We'll see what shall happen in the next couple of months to come."

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

Mikan, Natsume, Ruka, and Hotaru had all sat together at the loading dock. Natsume was leaning against the truck with a fretting Mikan hovering over his shoulder with a bag of ice. He had refuted her concerns time and time again to the point where he almost burned her hair. The brunette did not stop though, and continued to pester the boy until he accepted the ice and placed it on his cheek. The swelling had only gotten worse in the last forty minutes.

Wincing in pain the boy pulled the ice away and Mikan guided the ice back onto his cheek.

"Idiot!" Natsume finally snapped. "Stupid! Ugly! I don't want your help damnit. Stay the hell away from me!" He threw the ice down on the floor and glared angrily at the brunette as she scrambled to pick the ice up. She was angry at the boy too for being so careless.

"No, I won't, and I'm not ugly! You're the idiot who's not tending to your cheek anway! Stop being a wuss and put this on now!"

"Stupid cry baby!"

"Nasty Fox!"

The boy glared daggers at the girl and made no move to grab the ice from her expecting hand. Ruka and Hotaru were observing the two from where they were sitting on the dock. The inventor was deep in thought while Ruka was troubled. Natsume had never been hit by Persona before, and that only raised his concerns. The academy was doing whatever means necessary they could to get to the children. The blonde looked down at the ground before turning his attention to the black-haired girl besides him. Her amethyst eyes were shadowed with concern as they overlooked the bickering couple. Mikan was in front of Natsume, holding the ice up to his face and the boy sighed in resignation.

"Nogi. Keep a watch out for the Hyuuga siblings. Tell me if something changes. I'll keep an eye on Mikan."

The blonde snapped his head to Hotaru who was now looking up at the stars. She was pondering something again.

"Alright. I'll keep an eye out. I'm sorry to have you and Sakura involved in this. If only we didn't come here..." His azure eyes darkened at the thought but Hotaru sighed. Pulling out her hoof she whacked Nogi on the top of his head. She was still staring up at the sky when he angrily jumped up from his spot. The bump on his head was evident as she shuffled to put her invention away.

"What the hells your problem Imai?" He retorted while holding his head. She just shook her head and gestured with the tilt of her head to Natsume and Mikan. The brunette had finally gotten Natsume to take the ice, but he wasn't holding it up. She was gingerly placing it on his cheek with one hand, and her other was being held at the side by Natsume's. She was looking up at him with a concerned expression, and he remained stoic.

"I hit idiots who need correcting. Also if you guys had not come we would have missed such an interesting turnabout. Maybe they'll be friends instead of enemies."

At this the blonde boy could only nod his head. "Yeah, we can only watch from afar now and hope for the best." Hotaru and Ruka both nodded their heads in approval before being thrust back into reality. Ruka yawned and Hotaru went to stretch.

"It's getting late. Where's Aoi?" The inventor asked before getting up from her spot. She was looking over her inventory list one more time before giving the go to the loading dock technician. They began locking up her stuff and shipping it back to her home.

"Aoi's sleeping in the front seat of the truck. She's exhausted." Turning, the blonde raised his hand in the air and beckoned Natsume and Mikan over.

"Hey, Natsume, Sakura; we're leaving now."

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

Mikan raced over to Natsume's house as soon as she had heard the news. Over the past month and a half Aoi had caught a horrible fever, and it wasn't getting any better it seemed. At first they had thought it was a normal cold, but when she couldn't get up without feeling nauseated, and that she slept as if in a coma state… everyone was worried. Hotaru had made an ice machine in the shape of a seal to position right next to Aoi's bedding, but the ice would melt quickly when applied. Mr. Hyuuga had never seen this happen before in his family, and despite his knowledge as a fire user himself, he just didn't know anymore. He was working extra hard in the town across the acres just to buy Aoi's medicine, and Natsume was doing everything in his power to appease his sister.

That day he had practically ran over to Mikan's home just to drag her with him. His sister apparently wanted to talk to the brunette, but she just had no strength to go to the phone.

Barging through the door they collapsed in the living room where Aoi was moved to. It had been easier for their father to look in on her during the night instead of being upstairs right next to Natsume. The two were breathing heavily, wiping sweat from their faces only to find that she was back to sleep. Her knees were shaking from all the running, and once she was by Aoi's side, she collapsed nearby. Her face was flushed but she was beginning to cool down. When she was finally situated Mikan pulled the younger girl's hand out from under the blanket she held it gingerly within her own.

"She's so warm." Mikan exclaimed to Natsume who just pulled out an ice bag from the freezer to replace the other ice bag on her forehead.

"Her Fire Alice is over reacting to her cold, and since her immune systems terrible it'll go in all different directions." He found the spot next to Mikan comfortable to sit in while he tended to his sister's pillow and ice bag.

"Yesterday she was feeling better too." Mikan squeezed the girl's hand praying for the girl to keep fighting. It was terrible to see Natsume like he was too. He was a nervous wreck every time he was next to his sister, and sometimes when they hung out she could tell that he was thinking about Aoi.

"Nat…sume…" Aoi whimpered out when the cold touched her skin. Her left hand went straight to her forehead and held both the ice bag and his hand there. "Is… Mikan here…?" She turned to feel the pressure on her right hand and blankly looked up at Hazel eyes. Mikan tried to stay optimistic for her, but she couldn't help worrying.

"I'm here," Mikan cheerfully replied squeezing the younger girl's hand. "Natsume ran his heart out just to drag me here."

"Shut it you." He complained. "How are you feeling Aoi?" He was lightly pressing the ice onto her forehead, and was cautious of her hand on his own.

"Fuzzy actually…" The girl murmured. She blinked her eyes opened and closed before focusing on Natsume again. "Where's Ru-chan?"

"At the store. He's picking up strawberries for a snack."

The girl smiled. "Mmm… my favorite." Mikan reached forward then to wipe strands of black hair out of the girl's face and Natsume just smiled. The auburn brunette had thought that maybe he wasn't so bad after all. Suddenly the girl started to breathe heavily, her chest slightly going up and down as if it was difficult to even speak.

"Natsume… Mikan… can I have… red stone… the lucky one?" Her fever picked up and she became delirious again causing Mikan too slightly panic. Where would a red stone be…? Natsume pulled his hand away from his sister's forehead and delicately placed his sister's left hand under the comforter.

"Stay with her. I'm going to find her a red stone." Then he bolted from the room before Mikan could utter a single word.

Aoi continued to moan in agony and Mikan rubbed the girl's hand concerned. "Red stone… Natsume…"

"Shh… Aoi, Natsume just went to find you one. He'll get one for you; you know Ruka-pyon will be here soon. Strawberries sound good, right?" She had hoped that if she prattled on the girl would forget about the stone for a moment and just listen to her voice. If she didn't exert herself like she did before then she might get better.

"…Yeah… Ru-chan… strawberries sound good; I remember when… you and Hotaru started to call him that after the contest… it was so clever that I called him that several times… It was cute…" She was driveling on about little things that had happened after the contest. The pudding cups the day after tasted extremely yummy and Aoi had hoped that she could have a cup every day. Nastume wasn't that nice to her though. He apparently limited her intake of pudding by one cup every two weeks, and he started to call Mikan fat since she had two cups in one day.

Yet somehow she was still so small.

"Mikan… The ice… is… warming up…" Mikan noted how bright red her cheeks were, and when she retrieved the bag from the girl's face she found out how hot her forehead was.

"You ARE burning up. Is that your Alice Aoi?" She was continuing to talk hoping it would keep Aoi from talking anymore than she had too. "We'll cool you down with Hotaru's trusty invention; she always makes such cool things. The other day she made muscle amplificatory patches that increase your endurance. She made me put them on and had me run until I couldn't stand it… which was about three hours after the fact, but it was so boring." The girl easily placed the bag on the girl's head and somehow managed to see the steam shimmering above her forehead.

Grabbing the girl's hand, Mikan squeezed it tight within her own.

"Hotaru's… pretty amazing… I was… amazed by how… Ru-chan's Mom… took a liking to her… she always doted… on me like… that when I came over…"

Mikan nodded to the sick girl even though she knew Aoi wasn't looking. "Yeah, she is amazing. You're amazing too, having such an awesome power as well. I recently discovered that you and Natsume both have a fire Alice… it matches though." Mikan chuckled before squeezing Aoi's hand. The girl was beginning to doze off.

"Yeah… Natsume… was always the… trouble maker… in the family… but I… love him for… it…"

There was a strange thing pressing into Mikan's hand as she clenched the girl's hand but she didn't bother to check what it was. Aoi was her main concern.

"He's such a mystery that boy, but he cares for you just the same." Mikan reassured the girl. Only eight years old and she hoped that she was responsible enough to care for his younger sister. Then again, it must have taken a lot of trust to leave Aoi in her hands just like that. He had also run to her home to bring her here too.

When Mikan thought the worst was over she sighed with relief. It was like Natsume said, her cold just went all different directions and there was no telling where it was going to go next.

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

Natsume rushed through the central area just barely passing Ruka as he was running back from the store. The two of them briefly stopped upon seeing each other and Natsume explained that Aoi wanted a red stone. It had taken the two of them a while to think of something that may work for a replication but it was another town away.

"I think there's a toy store in the town where dad works, so I'm heading over there."

Ruka frowned at this. "I don't think you should go alone Natsume. At least let me accompany you… but who's watching Aoi? I thought that your dad was working late today…" Ruka's rabbit bobbed up with a sad face and droopy ears.

"Mikan's watching her for me." The boy explained before turning away.

"Sakura is? Ah, wait Natsume!" Following the boy, the two left town to the next hoping to find the red stone Aoi was murmuring about.

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

Three hours later and the sun was beginning to set in the horizon. Natsume and Ruka still had yet to appear leaving Mikan with a very sick Aoi. Mr. Hyuuga also hadn't made an appearance that evening either causing the girl to worry.

She was going to call Hotaru and ask her to come by, but whenever she thought the perfect opportunity came Aoi had immediately reacted up and that restarted the cooling period Mikan prepared. She would place ice bag after ice bag on the girl's face and then rub her hands until she was sleeping soundly. It was only when Mikan let go of her hand and left the room for a second that Aoi would start to trash around in pain.

This was the fourth time this had happened and Mikan was determined not to let her hand go this time around. "Shh Aoi, Natsume and Ruka-pyon will be here with your pretty red stone and Strawberries. Don't you want strawberries?" Aoi numbly nodded her head to the question, never opening her crimson eyes.

"Mm… Mikan… can… I get… more ice…?" Bobbing her head, the girl went to retrieve another ice pack but found that there were none. She had just used the last one a moment ago. Standing up, Mikan patted the girl's hand mentioning that she'd go get some more already-made ice packs from their freezer and be back in a moment. Aoi murmured to her that she'd be okay and tried to go back to sleep.

Running out of the room, she went to the freezer and she grabbed as many ice packs as she could before running back up and filling up the seal freezer. Another two trips later the freezer was filled once again, but Aoi wasn't looking great. Her breathing was stagnant and her face was sizzling bright red.

She moaned and tossed, and despite the ice nothing seemed to help her cool down. It was then that Mikan noticed something wrong. Aoi jolted up from her position grabbing her head in pain. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she was screaming in pain.

"Aoi!" Mikan wrapped her hands tightly around Aoi's right hand and pried it from her face. That was mistake number one.

"…I… can't… hold… it…." She whimpered. Mikan just clenched her hands tightly around her hand.

"Breathe Aoi, you can do it… breathe…"

Hazel eyes connected with her crimson orbs, and Mikan knew something was going to happen. Aoi looked like she was going to explode… and her Alice could potentially do that.

"Aoi!" Fright filled her, what could she do to help Aoi? Where was Natsume? Where was an _adult? _That strange orb thing pressed against her hands again just as she clenched Aoi's tiny ones. She had hoped her touch would prevent what might happen, but it was too late.

"MIKAN! Watch out!" The girl brought her attention to the open window where Narumi stood petrified. He was sweating profusely, as if he had run a marathon before he had arrived. He was continuing to shout at the girl, but she turned to Aoi who had cried out even more. "She's going to explode! Get out!"

Her eyes diluted into small almond shapes and that was the last straw. Everything that could possibly make any type of sound became as silent as space itself. A strong power washed over the girl moments afterwards. An explosion that felt like a freight train came crashing into the brunette, though it wasn't a fiery hot explosion that did it. It was a strange condensed pop that distinctly sounded like a poof of smoke. It didn't hurt, but the force of flying backwards did. Her head banged heavily against the wall, and the blurry image of Aoi falling back into bed was the last image she could see.

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

"Misaki! Get an ambulance to the Hyuuga's residence now!" Narumi climbed into the living room of the home to check Aoi's condition. She was sleeping peacefully now, and the fever was completely gone. It was like she didn't have a cold at all. Just in chance though he wrapped the girl in her comforter and went to Mikan. She was unconscious with a little bit of blood dribbling down the side of her face.

"Mikan… Mikan?" He checked for anymore external injuries, but he found none. Misaki had appeared at the windowsill with a fire extinguisher but there were no flames to extinguish.

"I thought you said Aoi Hyuuga exploded!" Misaki tossed the extinguisher out before climbing in himself. He checked the vitals of the unconscious girl and then looked to the Hyuuga sibling wordlessly. "Don't tell me Sakura nullified it."

"She did… Mikan nullified it, and as I suspected, Aoi had an Amplification Stone inserted into her. Even a nullifier would get blown away by the sheer force of her entire Alice exploding. Damn it… we were too late…" Narumi double checked if it was alright to pick her up and Misaki let him. Their first priority was getting Mikan treatment as soon as possible.

When he picked her up, Mikan's hand loosened dropping the bright red stone that Aoi had taken a liking too. The two adults froze as they stared at the stone before turning back to the brunette. "No… she can't be…" Misaki whispered, and Narumi frowned.

"That assumption of her being _her daughter _has jumped from plausible to a conviction. Misaki, take that stone," The man went to retrieve it but Narumi cut him off. "Don't touch it with your bare hands. Handle it with those gloves, and get rid of it. Persona was behind this… and I have a feeling it'll only get worse. For now, we take care of Mikan. Then we'll report to Jinno about what has happened."

Misaki pulled on his gloves and handled the stone with delicate precision. He opened up a zip lock baggie for the stone to reside in and sealed it inside. If they kept it as evidence they would probably have ruined the principal's future goals, but it would come at a cost.

"You didn't tell me that she might have a STEAL Alice, Naru. You told me that she was a nullification Alice, but not a STEAL." Misaki whispered to the blonde teacher, he was wary of anyone that might be listening in.

"I think it would be in our best interests to keep that Alice a secret from the academy. She'll already face a rough road just because she has the same Alice as _him. _If it were to be revealed that she had the same Alice as Yuka… well, the Hyuuga's will be the least of our concerns."

The biological teacher nodded in agreement. "Agreed, take Sakura to the hospital and I'll inform her grandfather of the accident."

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**T.K.: **Hope you enjoyed this installment! The next chapter will be the last one for this story! I'm already in the process of writing the next installments for this series! =D I'll give you a dedication chapter within the Assignments if you get the next stories title right! ;D *Hoping someone will get it so I can write more for my Assignments Story* lol.

**Natsumeslover: **To answer your question, Narumi didn't specifically tell anyone except for Misaki, who is his confidante, about his assumptions. He didn't want Persona to find out because then the attention would have shifted from Natsume to Mikan, and that wasn't something Narumi wanted. He's also still in debt to her mom (who's not mentioned at all, but is sort of mentioned briefly and because everyone knows that her mom had the STEAL alice, etc etc.). Though Narumi and Misaki were both shocked at the end of this chapter, as you can already see. =D Stay tuned for the next chapter.

**KidTantei: **I tried to incorporate more Hotaru and Ruka stuff too, but the focal point of this chapter was solely on the budding relationship between Mikan and Natsume. There will definitely be more scenes between Ruka and Hotaru; just that it'll be in the sequel when I get to it. lol. xD

Thank you for the reviews, I hope to continue writing stuff that you enjoy!

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**Completed: ****November 11th, 2010; 9:29 a.m.**


	9. Future Draped In Darkness

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. They belong to the rightful owner: Tachibana Higuchi. Thank you for your time.

**Summary:** Eight year old Mikan Sakura wanted nothing more than to enjoy her years of elementary school. She was popular, made friends easily, and was happy all the time. How will her life change when Hotaru Imai, a mysterious transfer student, appears into her life?

Ending Note: Last chappie! :( After a very long hiatus I've kicked my butt to at least get this edited and updated so that it's complete! Sequel is still up to fate; I need to decide whether or not I have the time to actually write something.

And Lastly: I'd like to dedicate this chapter to** KidTantei **and **NatsumesLover** for all of the reviews! ;D They really did make my day, and I hope you stay tuned for my other stories when they do pop up!

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"_**It's time to grow up and face reality. I just hope you're not as stupid as your predecessor was…"**_

_**-Jinno**_

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**Chapter Nine:**

**A Future Draped In Darkness**

It was completely night time by the time Natsume and Ruka made it back to his home. The lights were all on, and four black limousines were surrounding the house. The horrid feeling of something terrible happening filled both of the boys. They dropped everything that they had and charged forward into their home. Their first concern was to see if the academy had taken Mikan and Aoi away, or worse Aoi getting worse.

Breathlessly they barreled through three academy escorts to see Aoi playing cards with Narumi. Relief filled the ebony-haired nine-year old, but was annoyed because Narumi was there. It didn't take a genius to figure out that they had been playing for a while, even possibly waiting for the boys to return.

"Natsume!" Aoi cried out, "Ru-chan!"

Her cards were long forgotten and she jumped up from her position. Her excitement had easily given her the power to get up from her position without much difficulty. Natsume was shocked, but wrapped his arm around her while his other hand pressed up against her forehead. He was shocked to find that her scorching fever of 105 degrees was not even present. Actually, it looked like she had not had been sick the past couple of days. Before Natsume could say anything about his sisters' miraculous recovery, Narumi got up.

"Well, since you two are back I'm going to head to the hospital. Aoi, you should be safe with those two for the time being." The blonde teacher weaved through them, but Ruka stepped in front of the teacher. He had a look of concern but had not been able to voice it for Natsume beat him to it.

"What's going on at the hospital?" He was still holding his sister to him, trying hard to understand the complicated situation they seemed to be in. He was thankful that his sister was feeling better but that did not explain why the academy was there. It was then that he did notice something amiss. He swept a glance around the living room before clicking his tongue in distaste. Mikan was not present.

Ruka caught the sweeping glance and looked from the teacher in front of him to behind him where the kitchen was situated. He peered through the door before frowning. Mikan was nowhere (at least) on the first level of their home. This revelation caused Natsume to pull his sister behind him, bringing his palm out ready to crispify the blonde haired instructor. Narumi looked like he was plotting an escape route, but Natsume wasn't going to let that happen without an answer.

"Where is she?" He dangerously said and Aoi tugged on his sleeves. He paid her little attention while Narumi nervously coughed into his hand. The silence remained endless; In fact it was like World War III was about to break lose between those two. A child and teacher pinned in a fierce glaring contest, judging each other.

Narumi was the first to break the stare by scratching his head. It was true that there was something he was hiding from the kids, but he didn't know how to say it without rousing a certain juvenile from burning him alive. Natsume was getting irritated with the silence but he made no move to start a fight. It appeared that they were at an impasse once again.

Ruka, unable to shake the horrid feeling, darted his attention from Aoi to Narumi. He knew something had happened while they were out, but the question was what? Why did the academy show up now after months of inactivity? Why was Mikan gone? She was with Aoi treating her illness… so why was she gone? And better yet, what happened to break Aoi's fever?

"It's probably best if you see for yourselves," Narumi replied, breaking Ruka's streams of unanswered questions. He motioned for the three to follow him out. "Mikan was transported to the hospital."

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

Misaki was rearranging some flowers in the vase besides the hospital gurney when Narumi and three other children entered the room. Aoi reached Mikan's side first where Hotaru was waiting patiently, her hands worked meticulously on her little project in front of her. Unfortunately for the little inventor, her focus was strayed; always glancing up to Mikan's sleeping form to be sure she had not woken up yet.

"How is she?" Narumi asked Misaki, who moved to the corner of the room.

"The doctor said that she had a minor cut on her scalp. It's nothing to get worked up over." Misaki then pulled out his cellular phone. He pushed his speed dial to connect to his superior.

"I'm calling Jinno-sensei again to keep him updated about what has happened. You watch over them." Misaki left the room as abruptly as they had come in, but not before tapping Narumi on his shoulder.

"They won't let them go after this. This is what he wanted after all." Narumi grimly nodded at this tidbit of news. He knew the children would be forced to go to Alice Academy now. It was only a matter of time before the whole village heard about the news and discovered that there was not only one Alice there, but five.

"I know Misaki."

The children positioned themselves around Mikan's bedside, oblivious to the conversation the adults were having. Natsume and Ruka stood next to each other opposite the side Aoi and Hotaru. Unlike the girls though, they remained standing. When they had settled in a comfortable position, Hotaru had put down her invention, stood from her chair, and turned herself to glance at the two adults behind them.

"To the two adults whispering to each other in the back," Hotaru calmly spoke out in the small room. Narumi and Misaki both jumped in shock.

Misaki clamped his hand on his colleague's shoulder just as suddenly. "This one is all yours Naru." And before Narumi could protest, the biology teacher escaped. Hotaru did not miss a beat as the one teacher escaped though and continued her train of thought.

"It does not matter if he's not present. Naru, explain to us what exactly happened to Mikan. I don't appreciate being called at eight in the evening to hear that she wound up in the hospital from an explosion."

Natsume, Ruka, and Aoi gave Hotaru a surprised look when she mentioned the word: explosion. If there was an explosion, why wasn't there any collateral damage?

"You may want to take a seat then; this may take a while to explain…" Narumi began but when no one moved he cleared his throat.

"You see this dates back to the contest where you all participated. I didn't notice anything back then but as time went by I realized what had occurred. Aoi," Narumi paused, a bit too dramatically for the children's taste. They waited for him to continue. Tossing his blonde bangs to the side, he pressed his right hand up to his chin.

"You picked up a red stone that night didn't you?" The girl jumped at the question, and she nervously fiddled with her skirt. Hotaru narrowed her eyes in suspicion at the girl before turning back to Narumi. Natsume, meanwhile, leaned off of the wall towards the hospital bed as he raised his eye brows at the accusation.

"Aoi, you didn't pick anything up did you?" Ruka found the voice of what everyone wanted to say aloud. Narumi patiently waited for the young ebony-haired girl to confirm his suspicions.

"I..." She began with tears prickling the corner of her eyes.

"Aoi." Natsume calmly intervened with a cold expression.

"Did you or did you not." Hotaru shifted, giving the girl a look over once more. "Don't bother lying. I will know that you are and you will be suffering later for it. Do not cross me." The amethyst eyed inventor coldly replied to her before Narumi coughed.

"No need to be hostile everyone; what's done is done. I'm just explaining what happened so that you all under-!"

"Shut it Naru." Natsume bluntly said and placed both of his hands on the bed spread in front of him. The bed's mattress sunk underneath his touch and he leaned forward. He turned his attention to Hotaru who was glowering at his sister.

"Imai quit scaring my sister. This isn't an inquire for you to take charge." Hotaru snapped her head to Natsume, and her scowl persisted.

"I believe it is Hyuuga. If you haven't noticed Mikan's is in a hospital gurney. If not your sister, then whose fault is it? Since Aoi was sick with a high fever then that would make you the one to blame."

"Quit trying to find the blame in everyone around you Imai! We understand your sentiments regarding Sakura, but stop blaming Natsume and Aoi. They had nothing to do with this!" Ruka jumped into the conversation with an equally angry expression. Hotaru in turn glared at Ruka, and then back to Natsume who was blatantly ignoring her. She turned to follow his gaze, seeing that Aoi was holding back tears.

Shaking her head the inventor sunk back into the chair, but not before letting out a sigh. One hand went to the bridge of her nose to massage the headache that was rising. Thought she would not admit it, some fault lied with her too. "Sorry." She murmured with a hesitant reply.

When Hotaru had murmured her apology Aoi instantly broke. Her face became blotchy, and she nodded her head as if in a debate against her inner self.

"Yes, I did pick one up, but I don't understand why it matters now. Why is Mikan in this state?" She cried and Natsume grit his teeth. Why did he have a feeling he was not going to like what he was going to hear after this? Then again he was pissed that someone made his sister cry like that. No one made his little sister unhappy, unless they had a death wish.

"You see, that stone wasn't for you." Narumi consoled the girl. He moved forwards to the hiccupping girl and gave her a tissue to wipe her face. He calmly waited for the girl to calm down before continuing.

"It was intended for Natsume whom the academy wants. They wanted to cause a scandal that would make you _have _to go to the academy." Narumi paused, phrasing his next sentence correctly. If he didn't, he was sure he would wind up as a shish cabob.

"Although it was not the result they were expecting, they still will get what they want."

Hotaru scoffed with an interruption. "I should have figured the academy would do something as underhanded as that." Aoi continually hiccupped in between Hotaru's few words before shaking her head. She just couldn't believe that this could possibly be her fault.

Ruka nodded with a stern expression, "I should know. You all tried to kidnap me multiple times…"

"Ruka, we did not want it to be that way. Honestly, we were doing it for the well being and protection of you. If we had not attempted to take you with us, other organizations or companies would have kidnapped you with deadly, more fatal consequences in mind." At this Narumi just cleared his throat, taking this time to regain control of the conversation.

"The stone you picked up Aoi just happened to be an amplification stone that makes the user use up all of their Alice power in one blow. The stone got absorbed into your body over the past two months, and your body began rejecting it. That was why you had such a terrible cold and severe fever breaks. It finally got to the climax point today… but luckily Mikan was there to stop it."

Natsume straightened himself from the bed and slammed a hand into the wall. The loud banging echoed miserably through the hospital room. "You're telling me you _knew _this, and you still _did nothing?" _Narumi dropped his head avoiding the children's glare.

"Let me explain, I didn't actually know for sure that this was happening until it was too late. We were observing Aoi for the past month wondering what could have been making her ill… and one of our supervisors called us asking if Persona had brought a bright red stone with him on the trip. At first I didn't know what he was talking about, but Misaki had.

He said that Persona had handled it with care, but he just assumed that he didn't want to use his Alice on it accidently. When we found out it was an amplification stone from one of the Alice research facilities we rushed over to the house only to find Aoi about ready to go. Mikan continued holding her hand as if her life depended on it but Aoi, your power exploded…"

Everyone swiftly brought a look to Aoi who was shocked in retrospect. She gave a look to her brother before shaking her head.

"No way… I just thought it was all a dream since Mikan wasn't there… I had assumed I had dreamed it." The girl raised her index finger in the air and a small fire appeared above it. She was gazing at her Alice power with a strange expression.

Ruka coughed bringing everyone's attention to him. "If her power exploded, why is she still able to use her Alice? If what you're saying is true then her Alice would have burnt up with all of it being used in one final destructive _bomb. _Yet here she is completely fine…"

"It was because of Polka dots." All the children directed their attention to Natsume who was just staring at the girl sleeping in the bed. Her hair was down, and the hospital gown peeked out from underneath the wool comforter. The bright white bandage decorated her forehead like a war badge on a soldier.

"That is correct Natsume." Narumi applauded, "Her nullification stopped the blast from occurring, and thanks to that outside force the red stone was expelled from Aoi's body saving what little power remains. Unfortunately for you Aoi, we fear that you have a limited Alice that will dissipate as you grow older. If you were to go to Alice Academy, you would only be there for a short amount of time." Ruka clenched his fists.

"If Aoi was fine, why didn't you go with Mikan? Her Alice was not even stable, you didn't even know if her Alice existed."

"When Mikan was being transported to the hospital I had decided it best to stay behind with Aoi in case her Alice exploded when she woke up… but it seems my concerns went unprecedented." Naru explained listlessly.

Hotaru placed a hand on top of the bed and watched Mikan who slept on obliviously. What the inventor was afraid of was all of the nagging the girl would do when she did awaken.

"Such an idiot…" Hotaru murmured and Aoi grabbed hold of Hotaru's free hand.

"It's… my entire fault." Aoi whispered. "If it weren't for me… we wouldn't be here now."

The tears poured down her face once more and Hotaru just sighed. "Don't you start once again. If you start crying I'll have to hit you just like I hit Mikan." Ruka shuffled nervously on his feet, while his bunny landed with a soft poof besides Mikan. Curling up next to her arm the bunny rested its head on top of the blanket closing its eyes.

"Aoi, knock it off before ice queen does hit you. Naru," The boy turned his attention to the blonde teacher.

"At the beginning you said you didn't know what type of Alice she was. Did you let this happen to her based on a _whim_ that she _might _have this power?" The atmosphere around them children darkened in that instant. It had felt as if a Mexican Stand Off was occurring, and one slight move would destroy everything. Crimson eyes closely watched over the teacher, and narrowed even more when the adult heaved a sigh.

"Yeah, it was based on conjecture that she might have a nullifying Alice…"

Before beating an eye lash, the boy crossed the room and pulled forward the teacher's shirt, and a flame appeared in his other open palm. A deathly expression conformed on his face, and the cords of everyone's sanity cracked in the distant. Ruka jumped to the defense of Natsume, also angry with the answer they had just discovered. The academy risked Mikan's safety based on a whim. Hotaru remained where she was, holding up her deer hoof ready to lay some smack down on Narumi if he approached her best friend.

Agonizingly, the seconds went by without Narumi flinching and Natsume released the teacher. Narumi coughed, massaging his throat and sitting pleasantly on the tiled floor. He was surprised by the force the boy had.

"You have ten seconds to get the hell out of here before I kill you myself." The boy threatened but Narumi shook his head. He smiled sadly from his position.

"You're so kind Natsume," Then an aroma filled the air. It was a flowery sweet scent but it made the children feel extremely tired.

"But I can't die just yet. It's been a long night so go to bed for tonight and we'll continue this conversation tomorrow."

Ruka froze in his spot, knowing full well what had just happened. He tried to warn the others but immediately fell to his knees. Darkness soon engulfed him before a single word of caution could escape his lips. Aoi and Hotaru both fell forward falling silently onto the gurney without much noise, and Natsume struggled under the pheromones released. His hand went to toss his fireball but nothing came forward. He was becoming weak in the knees.

"Damn you… Naru…" Natsume cursed.

He was staggering where he was standing leaving Narumi to chuckle at the futile attempt. Without saying a word Narumi blew into Natsume's collar, overloading the boy with his pheromones. Surely the boy would kill him later, and knew that Natsume wouldn't be changing his opinion of him in the nearby future. Natsume's knees gave way as the boy collapsed into Narumi's expecting arms. He stared at each of the children's faces before sighing.

"This has been a long night for _all _of us. A good night's rest will do us good, I'm sure."

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

A pounding headache was rising as Mikan began to open her hazel eyes. Her whole body felt heavy, and there were strange beeping noises around her. The soft breathing of someone resonated within the tiny room and with a blurred vision the girl checked what was making the noise. All of her friends were asleep, their heads resting unevenly on the side. Hotaru was hunched over her invention and her hand was up on top of the blanket holding her still. Aoi was right beside her, black hair still a mess with her head buried in her arms.

Ruka was probably in the most uncomfortable spot since his head was at an awkward angle. One arm was holding the side of the bed and his blonde bangs covered his sleeping eyes. The one Mikan didn't see there was Natsume but when she straightened up she saw another raven-haired person on the floor. He was slumped up against the wall, his head hung low and relaxed. He looked like a puppet whose strings were cut. In fact everyone in the room looked like it.

"Where am I… and what happened?" She pondered before a door opened to her left. There were three people, two of whom she recognized to be Misaki and Narumi-sensei, and an older gentleman with a crease in his forehead. The older gentleman looked like a strict man and the scowl on his face didn't help her nerves. Misaki was leaning against the wall, next to door looking out.

"Ah!" The blonde teacher chirped when he noticed Mikan stirring. "She's awake, the other children are still sleeping it seems."

He walked over to the bed before walking over to where Ruka was sleeping. Grabbing the blonde boy he picked him up from his awkward spot and put him besides Natsume. At least Ruka looked a bit more comfortable now that he was moved.

The other man stared indignantly at the entire scene. "Narumi, introductions now."

Narumi arose from his spot next to the two boys. He pointed to the blonde-haired boy. "This is Ruka; animal pheromones, he'll be in my class when he goes to Alice Academy."

He then pointed to the raven-haired lad next to him and then to the short raven haired girl on Hotaru's right. "These are the Hyuuga siblings. Natsume and Aoi Hyuuga; fire abilities, they would be in the latent ability with Makihara."

Moving his index finger to Hotaru he concluded quickly. "And this is Hotaru Imai; invention ability; She would be in your class, Misaki."

Mikan blankly stared at Narumi as he continued to introduce her friends. He just finished with Hotaru before she was the attention of the older man. He was giving her the sternest glare she'd ever seen.

Earlier she thought Persona was bad… this man gave her a new definition of fear. "I'm to assume _she's _the one with _that_ Alice."

Narumi bobbed his head dutifully. "Yup, Mikan sweetie this is Jinno-sensei. He's the head of the elementary division at Alice Academy."

"Pleasure," The older man's curt response cut through Mikan before turning to Misaki. "See to it that you contact their parents and guardians. Persona will be coming here to collect the students if Narumi doesn't do it. It would be wise not to have Persona involved again. As you can see it's led to an almost disastrous end."

He gestured to Mikan in the hospital gurney. His eyes held authority and conviction.

"Wait… you're taking them away?" Mikan whispered out. She knew how much her friends didn't want to go to the academy. "They don't want to go."

Narumi shook his head, amethyst orbs glimmering with regret. "I'm sorry Mikan but since the incident happened we have to. The public knows that you are all Alice's now, and our agreement was that you keep your Alice's a secret."

That was when Jinno interrupted, "Agreement or not you would have gone to the school. There was no way around it."

Directing his attention solely at Mikan he glared. The younger girl wrapped her arms around herself before he continued. "It's time to grow up and face reality. I just hope you're not as stupid as your predecessor was. He met a sorry fate and it would be a _shame_ if the same thing happened to you."

His tone didn't sound regrettable at all to Mikan, in fact, it sounded like a threat. Who was her '_predecessor' _anyways?

Narumi coughed into his hand. "Jinno-sensei that was the past. She may have the same Alice as him, but that doesn't mean she'll…"

"Enough Narumi-_sensei_. Do not forget what role you are playing." Giving one last look to the sleeping children and Mikan he turned away, walking out of the small room. Misaki sighed before following after Jinno.

"You always chase after the past Naru. I just hope you know what you're doing."

Then like that it was only Narumi and Mikan. The older male looked at the girl with a sad expression. The girl had her head slumped down, her hands were fumbling with her buttons on her shirt and she visibly looked depressed from Jinno's words. Hoping to cheer the girl up, he climbed on top of the bed next to the girl and sat there. His back was supported by the back of the head board and Mikan leaned her head up against him.

At this the teacher wrapped an arm around the tiny girl and tilted his head downwards. He looked at the girl next to him, before looking at the rest of the children.

"Don't let Jinno-sensei rattle you Mikan; everything will work out just nicely." He reassured the girl by smiling his trademark smile, but felt terrible on the inside. He wasn't sure if everything would work out nicely or not, but he wished things would. The children had already been through enough as it was.

The bunny that was sleeping by Mikan's side awoke from the sudden movement on the bed. When it noticed that Narumi-sensei was back, it hopped into his lap and nudged for some attention. Mikan saw this and sleepily rubbed the Bunny's head softly. Strangely she was overcome with exhaustion once again.

"He sounded so mean… Narumi-sensei, I don't like him." Narumi just chuckled and leaned his back against the headboard.

"Jinno-sensei is strict, but he is a kind person. He, along with Misaki-sensei are people whom you can trust. Even if they do allude to such dark things." Mikan numbly nodded at this explanation and sighed. "Narumi-sensei, why is everyone here…? They look kind of uncomfortable."

This brought back memories from a couple hours past and Narumi chuckled once more. He was sure to face the wrath of those four children soon, but he hoped that he could avoid it. Natsume and Hotaru were two children he was hoping wouldn't wake up in the next few minutes.

"I'll be sure everyone is sent safely to their homes after you go to sleep Mikan. It probably wouldn't be good for their health if they slept in this cold room, right?" A chuckle emanated from Narumi's chest slightly and Mikan bobbed her head in agreement. His words were becoming mush in her ears.

"They'd… probably be warmer in their… beds." Mikan agreed, sounding like garbled yawns mixed in with the English language.

"Quite so." He smiled.

She was still so sleepy even after all of that sleep. She felt the soft pressure of a blanket on top of her and the last of the older man's murmurings echoing in her ears.

"I'm sorry it had to occur this way Mikan. I fear only this is only the beginning."

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

"Principal, I'm afraid to report that the amplification stone did not work. Aoi Hyuuga's fire did not explode. Somehow the stone was ejected when the nullifier stopped the explosion. There was only one injury."

Persona clenched the limousines phone with frustration; the principal did not like failure. "The nullifier is hospitalized. She is being held there for two more days."

There was a short pause before Persona grunted. "I found it odd that the stone just _happened _to be pulled out from Aoi Hyuuga. Yes, I'll investigate immediately."

Slamming the phone down he glared out the limousine window and looked to the hospital.

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

He was going to kill Naru. His eyes popped open with intent to kill but found himself someplace different. The walls were not white, and it definitely wasn't tiny. Only a couple of posters decorated the walls with the art his father drew. There was a family portrait on the tan dresser, with his family smiling. It took a couple of seconds to realize that he wasn't in the hospital with Mikan, but in his father's room. His bed promised him warmth and safety, but reluctantly Natsume pushed off the comforter. He couldn't stay in bed waiting for something to happen.

Rising up from his father's bed he walked to the connecting door to the hallway. Ruka's was connected to his father's room since it was a guest room, so the boy figured he could check on his best friend. Arriving in front of his door his hand pulled it open to find the blonde haired boy sleeping quietly with the blanket brought over his head. The soft snoring could be heard underneath from his pet bunny. Leaving the door open Natsume left his spot to check on his sister next. It appeared that after Narumi had used his pheromones on them and then had them transported back to their homes. How long had it been since they were out?

That was when he past his own room. From within he could hear the shuffling sounds of someone going through his things. Tilting his head inside the dark room he saw his father packing some of belongings into a suitcase. Watching his old man pack his things made him remember all the times they had run away from the academy, and the bad memories that accompanied them.

"Are we leaving again?" His father wasn't expecting him apparently from his reaction. The man looked like he was about to jump out of his skin. "Well, are we?"

The older man dropped a portion of Natsume's clothes into the suitcase before sighing.

"No." The voice was clear but Natsume caught the oddity from it. Natsume noticed that his father looked much older than he seemed; more stressed was the cause or perhaps it was the way his father was profiled in the light.

"Why are you packing then?" Natsume asked curiously. His arms crossed in front of his chest and he leaned up against the door frame. Somehow he knew the answer his father had eluded.

"We're going there, huh?" Natsume surprised himself by chuckling afterwards. The slow shake of his head and his raven hair dangled in front of his face.

"It was only a matter of time, I suppose." The boy just stared at the ground. He was remembering all of the fun times he and his friends hung out. New Years, school projects, Fourth of July, sleepovers, playing rock band with everyone, preparing for the band contest… It all seemed like it had just happened yesterday.

His father's strong arms wrapped around him pulling the boy into an embrace; he was crying softly. Natsume clenched his hands; he hated the fact that his family was suffering. Why did he have an Alice? Why did the Alice Academy have to make things so much worse for them? Why did everything spiral into a dark tunnel?

"I'm sorry Natsume… I'm so sorry that I couldn't protect you, Aoi and Ruka." The older man stifled his crying; Natsume painfully dropped his head on top of his father's shaking shoulders. The smell from his old man's aftershave wafted up into his senses and he reached his limit. With shaky digits, Natsume grabbed hold of his father's shirt and cried.

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

It was a week after Narumi had visited Mikan. Her grandfather came by everyday during visiting hours and when it was time for him to go, he'd cause a fuss. The nurses would have to remind him of the rules once again and then he'd reluctantly leave. Mikan didn't particularly care about being alone, but she was worrying over the future. She was afraid of what could potentially lie in the darkness of her room as well. Sometimes she'd wake up to the sound of breathing, only to find out nothing was there. It was like a ghost was sharing the room with her.

Tonight was different from those other nights though. The sun was slowly setting past the mountains causing the light to dwindle. Closing her hazel eyes Mikan prepared herself for another haunting night. That was until the door creaked open; the sound of heels clicking against the linoleum caught her attention and she turned to the noise. Standing in front of the door was Persona.

"I see you're doing well Mikan Sakura." The white masquerade mask rested evenly from his forehead to the bridge of his nose. She couldn't see his eyes at all, and the scary smirk he had from that one night remained upon his lips.

"Who… are you…?" The eight year old girl stuttered out. This man was a mystery, but it was complicated. It wasn't like the mysterious aura that was Natsume. Or even the whole Alice community. This mystery was as compelling as Pandora's Box. The man ignored her question and slowly reached out with his extended fingers. He was slowly getting closer to her cheek with those gaudy silver jewels on his digits.

The memory of Natsume's ribbon rotting away at his touch earlier that summer made Mikan flinch involuntarily at his touch. She couldn't help but think that she might end up the same way. From the corner of her eyes she saw his hand stop just before making contact. What was he doing?

As soon as she had flinched the air turned stagnant; breathing became quite difficult for the little girl, but somehow the sense dissolved away. Her hands were shaking and her eyes were wide with shock.

"Just like _him_. Probably just as stupid too." With his other hand he took off his masquerade mask and revealed an icy stare. He was staring at her with as much venom as a coral snake had. His pale hand that was hovering over her cheek jerked to grab her chin. The movement made her freeze entirely and he directed her to face him. Persona was staring icily into her hazel eyes.

"Don't think too highly of yourself just because you saved Aoi Hyuuga; it doesn't mean that you can save them."

Immediately the pressure on her chin disappeared and she was able to breathe again. Her eyes began to water as she watched the older man take his leave.

"You may have foiled the principal's plans this time, but next time it won't end like it did." When the door slammed shut she curled up into her blanket.

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

Hotaru was throwing some final things into a box to be shipped to the academy when her mom walked in. She was crying once more but she held up Hotaru's first invention. "Hey, how's the packing going?" Quietly the raven haired girl rose from her kneeling position and faced her mother. She wasn't smiling.

"Fine."

Her mother nodded mutely before shaking her head. "I'm sorry… you're so young. I wanted you to have a lot of happy memories before you were forced to go."

Her mother hiccupped before wiping away the tears. Hotaru approached her mother and reached up to wipe her mom's cheeks."I have plenty of happy memories mom. Thank you for them. I'll cherish them forever."

The girl realized that she probably wouldn't have had a normal childhood because of her Alice, but ever since she moved here a lot had changed that. Mikan had provided her with every normal childhood memory possible. From her insistent ranting, to her crying, and smiling face Hotaru experienced many new things thanks to that brunette girl.

The phone began to ring at that moment. Taking a moment Hotaru breathed a sigh of grief when her mom left. That wasn't the only thing she was worried about: she would never be able to see her mom and dad again after that week. The only good thing that seemed reasonable was the chance that she may meet her older brother. He never sent any mail or called, or even visited them. What if she ended up like him? Fearfully Hotaru continued packing.

"Hotaru." Her mom called for her. "Ruka Nogi is on the phone for you. He sounds flustered."

When doesn't he? Hotaru mentally replied before leaving her room. Her mom met her halfway and handed the phone to her.

"Hello Nogi. You owe me twenty dollars for interrupting my time packing."

"Err… what? You know I don't have that kind of money Imai! Ow, that hurt Natsume! Oh, right. Sakura is being released today and we're heading over there now. Narumi came by earlier to tell us that we're all leaving for Alice Academy." Hotaru felt her breath become clipped from her lungs. Her heart was pounding crazily.

Why did she feel like something bad was going to happen? "I'll be there in five minutes."

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

Natsume, Ruka, and Aoi arrived in front of the hospital where the limousine to Gakuen Alice was waiting. Hotaru was already there holding a small box, and she was staring at the sliding doors of the hospital. The Hyuuga siblings and Ruka all made their way to stand next to the quiet girl and followed her stare.

Beyond the glass door was Narumi holding Mikan's hand. He was guiding her out, probably towards the limousine. When Mikan was finally outside she saw everyone and brightly smiled. Her free hand went to wave frantically to them causing Aoi to giggle. It seemed that she was doing better than she had before. Narumi didn't let go of Mikan's hand though, even as she started to run towards the children. Unfortunately she couldn't get any further because the teacher held her where she was.

"Narumi-sensei!" Mikan whined slightly looking up into his amused amethyst orbs. He was smiling as if he was keeping her to himself. He raised an index finger up and explained to the overly exuberant child.

"It's not wise to run when you're still recuperating Mikan, besides they're running over he—?" Immediately after he appeared Natsume stomped his way over to the two and solidly kicked Narumi in the solar plexus. Mikan was free quite instantaneously as the older man went to hold his bruised chest coughing. Hotaru and Aoi swooped in on both sides of the pigtailed brunette, and Ruka went to restrain Natsume.

"Don't hold me back Ruka, I'm going to kill that perverted teacher for what he did."

"Na-Natsume!" Aoi gaped.

Ruka just held onto his friend's right arm to tug him back. "He's not worth it Natsume, besides Sakura's fine. Isn't that right?" The blonde boy had hoped if Mikan had agreed with him Natsume would forget about Naru, at least for the moment. His idea was thrown out the window when Mikan puffed her cheeks in anger.

Angrily Mikan huffed back a response, "I may be fine, but that has nothing to do with it! Narumi-sensei didn't do anything to you, Natsume! Why do you always resort to violence! You ape!"

Ruka felt his azure eyes widen in shock. Why couldn't she have appeased Natsume by a simple: yes? Hotaru shook her head before pulling Aoi away from the brunette in question.

"Aoi, it would be wise to stay away from the idiot." She calmly retorted and Ruka sighed. Resigning, he let go of Natsume's arm and backed away. No one messed with Natsume, not when he was pissed at the world.

The blonde teacher waved off her concern with his hand; apparently he couldn't read the atmosphere between the two children. "No, no, it's quite alright Mikan. Natsume always does this!"

The boy, on the other hand, was not pleased that Mikan had called him an ape. Glaring at the brunette in question he moved in front of her. "What did you call me, ugly?"

Appalled, the younger girl took a step back before steadying herself. She wasn't at fault, he was. With her finger she went to poke him in the chest with as much aggravation as she could. Nothing seemed to matter anymore because she was now fuming at the raven haired boy in front of her. His crimson eyes bored into her own as she poked him violently with every word she said.

"I called you an _ape; _you're so violent!"

Hotaru sighed shaking her head, "The idiot didn't know what happened so obviously she's deluded herself into thinking Naru's a good teacher."

Aoi pondered this before admitting, "I think Narumi-sensei's a good person."

Ruka pulled his pet bunny from on top of his shoulder and started to scratch behind its ears. He knew better than to say anything. Natsume snapped out of his hateful glare to stare at his sister. His eyes held a burning fire within them.

"You don't know anything Aoi," Natsume darkly replied before turning his full attention to Mikan. He grabbed hold of one of her pigtails and with his other hand he pulled out her cheek. The girl tried to struggle out from his grasp but Natsume kept on pulling.

"I'm going to wipe the rose-colored veil from your eyes forcefully if I have to Polka; No one from the academy can be trusted. If you do then you're a chump, and a dumb one at that." Releasing her cheek, he moved to the side where he had a better grip of her hair.

"That's not true, Natsume." From behind them Narumi was dusting off his frilled white button up shirt with his free hand. His blonde bangs fell over his purple orbs evenly and the man managed a smile once more. The breath he lost from Natsume's kick returned and he was able to stand up.

"You may not trust me now but I want to change that! I'm not an enemy, but an ally." He chided.

Ignoring the teacher Natsume tugged Mikan's pigtail one more time, "You're going to regret it if you do." The crimson eyed boy remarked before walking away.

He stuffed his hands into his pockets with a force to be reckoned. Watching Ruka noticed that Natsume was heading to the limousine and the blonde boy followed suit.

"Take his words seriously Sakura…" The boy pleaded quietly before leaving the brunette's side. She was shocked that Ruka was defending the boy.

Aoi glanced between her brother and Mikan before making her way over with a small smile. Finally Hotaru pushed past Mikan with a set expression. The small box was left forgotten through the little squabble that happened.

"Come on dummy." Hotaru softly said to the brunette. She didn't agree nor disagree with what had just happened. "We're going."

Mikan didn't budge from her spot, there was something foreboding about Natsume's words. Then there was the fact that the scary, mystery man who gave her a warning as well. What was to come? Would she really regret trusting Narumi-sensei? She felt a hand press her back where the shoulder blades connected. Looking up she stared at Narumi who was smiling down at her. His hand was offered in front of her, and Natsume's words echoed painfully in the back of her mind.

No, she wouldn't believe the boy. He was barely older than she was and that didn't mean he had the experience like an adult would. So shaking the feeling aside she accepted Narumi's hand with a bright smile. Natsume was just being moody, Ruka was just being a good friend, Aoi was following her older brother, and Hotaru was still the stoic girl since third grade.

Narumi ushered the children into the limousine with a gestured hand, "Alright everyone, settle in." Hotaru and Aoi sat next to Mikan, and Ruka and Natsume sat on the opposite side.

Natsume was holding his chin in his hand looking outside the window. Ruka just focused on his pet. Hotaru placed the small box besides Mikan before buckling herself in.

"For getting better." Hotaru replied to Mikan's questioned look. Aoi smiled at Mikan then and placed a card on top.

"It's from everyone. I had them sign it." She brushed a couple strands of black hair out of her face. Narumi himself settled himself next to Ruka. The buckle snapped loudly in the awkward silence that followed.

"It'll be a long ride from here. Alice Academy here we come!" He pretended to pump his hand enthusiastically, and Mikan (who was holding Aoi's and Hotaru's hand within the car at that moment) lifted their hands up with hers. No noise was made from their lips except for a small yoo-hoo from Mikan.

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

Gates closed shut behind them as they stood in front of the prestigious school. Everyone looked at their environment with a new found interest. Ruka was looking towards the forest taking note where he could potentially find some animals. Hotaru was scouting for new ideas and new inventions. Aoi was happily ingesting the whole atmosphere. Natsume was the least responsive of the group and tagged along in the back.

"Welcome everyone!" Everyone directed their attention to Narumi who was walking backwards towards the main building. The architecture was quite different than it was in Mikan's hometown. Instead of the country life, it was all a metropolis city. Large walls blocked off the real world from this Alice community and the buildings were built with superiority. "If you follow me we'll get your uniforms and sign you all up for classes!"

The group of kids followed Narumi towards the big building, taking note of the places he pointed out. It took a total of ten minutes to walk the long stretch of path, and finally Narumi stopped them.

"This is the administration building. If you have any concerns, questions, or problems you can find a teacher or faculty member here. I need to go inform the principal of your arrival and I'll get your uniforms; but before I leave."

Narumi kneeled down to each of their eye levels and put on hand on Aoi's shoulder, and another on Mikan's. He smiled at each of them before giving out his final advice. "Make as many friends as you can, they will be your strength here. Since you can't go home or visit during breaks they will help you through the tough times."

With that the blonde teacher got up and left the group of children to themselves.

"Wait… what?" The children gaped at his retreating figure.

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

The End.

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

**Completed: October 19, 2011; Edit Complete. **

Review and tell me what should be worked on more...? :) It would make my day!


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